Heart of a Pirate
by Paintball-Gamer
Summary: The Straw Hat Pirates show up at Destiny Islands from Skypiea and meet Sora and his friends. But when the Heartless invade, they are all separated. Now Luffy and Sora must join forces to find their friends, and defeat the darkness. KH/One Piece crossover.
1. New Arrivals

Heart of a Pirate

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or Kingdom Hearts. They belong to Eiichiro Oda and Square Enix respectively.

**Chapter 1: New Arrivals**

0o0o0o0o0o0o-- _Destiny Islands, Children's Island_

It was nighttime. There was a full moon, and there were very few clouds in the sky, allowing the pale white orb to shine unobstructed onto the island below it. There was not a single sound, save for the gentle lapping of the waves onto the beach. All was peaceful, until…

"WAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!"

**SPLAAASSHH!!**

A large ship came falling down from the sky and crashed into the ocean close to the island, sending up huge amounts of water and spray. Huge waves splashed against the beach and the rocks, and the ship rocked back and forth on the water as it creaked and groaned from the strain of the impact. After about a minute of chaos, the water finally settled down and the ship stopped rocking, and once again, everything was quiet.

0o0o0o0o0o0o-- _Destiny Islands, Sora's house, the next morning_

"Sora! Hey, Sora! Wake up!"

The sound of Kairi's voice ringing through the open window roused Sora from his slumber. He yawned and lazily raised a hand to shield his eyes from the bright sunlight shining in through the window. "Ugh… morning already?" he groaned as he stretched and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Sora! Hey, come on! You gonna sleep all day?" called the voice of Sora's best friend, Riku.

Sora chuckled to himself as he stood up from his bed and made his way to the window, looking down to where his two best friends, Riku and Kairi, were standing. "Geez, guys, what's a guy gotta do to get a little shut-eye around here?" he jokingly complained while grinning, as Riku and Kairi laughed.

"No time for that now! There's something you've gotta see!" Riku replied with an excited look on his face. Sora raised an eyebrow at Riku's expression; he'd hadn't seen Riku this excited and eager since, well, ever. He was normally the most level-headed of the three of them. Sora's curiosity was now peaked. "What? What is it?" he asked, now feeling eager himself.

"No time to explain! Come on, get down here and we'll show you!" Riku replied, gesturing for him to follow. Sora grinned. "Alright, I'll be right there!" he said, turning back inside his room.

After quickly getting dressed, dashing down the stairs and bolting down some toast his mom made, Sora burst out the front door to join Riku and Kairi. "About time you got out here!" Kairi said with mock annoyance, although she was still smiling. Sora sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Well, you know, it's hard to get ready in the morning in just five minutes," he replied. Kairi giggled. "Relax, I was just kidding," she said.

Sora cleared his throat. "Well, enough about that! What did you guys want to show me?" he asked.

"Follow me!" replied Riku, turning around and running towards the docks. "Hey, wait for us!" called out Sora as he moved to follow Riku, Kairi following suit. As soon as they caught up with Riku, Sora looked over to the Children's Island in the distance. His eyes widened at the sight.

A large ship was anchored at the beach dock where they usually tied their boats. It looked like a pirate ship, the kind they had heard about in the stories read to them as kids, complete with a black flag with a skull and crossbones on it, although for some odd reason, the skull was wearing what looked like a straw hat.

"Is that…?" began Sora, still gaping at the sight. Riku nodded. "Yeah, it's definitely a pirate ship!" he answered, looking like he was itching to get over there and check it out. Fortunately, Sora granted his wish as he said "Well, what are we waiting for?! Let's go check it out!" With that, the three friends hopped into their respective dinghies and began paddling towards the Children's Island.

Why was Sora so surprised, and Riku so excited? Because this was the first time they had ever seen a foreign ship of any kind arrive at Destiny Islands. According to what they had learned about the history of Destiny Islands, it was incredibly rare for a ship from anywhere outside the islands to dock at their home, or even pass by in the distance. The last time anyone could remember it happening was over 20 years ago, when a group of outlaws, calling themselves the Gold Roger Pirates, had passed through and stayed in town for a short time. And as for before that… no one could remember.

In the past, many people, their curiosity and sense of adventure getting the better of them, had created their own vessels and sailed out into the surrounding ocean to search for new places… but none had ever come back. Knowing that, the people of the islands decided to leave well enough alone and remain where they were. After all, the islands were remarkably self-sustaining, and the people living there would never need help from outside to continue living comfortably.

Riku, however, thought differently. Ever since Kairi had come to Destiny Islands from an unknown place over ten years ago, he had become curious to the possibility of other worlds outside of theirs, and as time went on, his desire to seek out other worlds became stronger, and eventually, he, along with Sora and Kairi, decided to build a raft in order to sail out into the uncharted waters, seeking out strange new places and worlds. In fact, they had planned to set off on their journey this very day, having finished their raft the previous day, but with the arrival of a pirate ship, they silently but unanimously decided to put their plans on hold for another day.

Once they got close to the ship, Sora noticed two dinghies much like their own tied to the dock where the pirate ship was. "Hey, aren't those Tidus and Wakka's boats?" asked Sora, pointing ahead.

"Yeah," replied Riku with a chuckle. "They didn't want to wait for you, so they went on ahead!"

All three of them laughed as they pulled up next to the dock, but then stopped when they heard a scream from the pirate ship, which didn't sound familiar.

"What was that?" wondered Sora.

-- _(Five minutes earlier)_

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Wakka?" asked Tidus, looking slightly apprehensive as he and Wakka stepped onto the deck of the pirate ship. Wakka simply laughed.

"'ey, come on! Where's your sense of adventure, eh?" the blitzball player replied jovially. "It's not every day you get to see a real live pirate ship, ya? Heck, it's practically a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"

"I know, but these are _pirates!_ What happens if they catch us?" said Tidus, still looking slightly nervous. Wakka simply waved him off.

"Relax, brudda, we're only havin' a look at the outside parts, ya? We're not damagin' anythin'! And once we're done, we can wait for 'em on the beach! Who knows, maybe they'll let us have a look inside, ya?" Tidus shook his head in slight exasperation, but Wakka didn't see it as he turned around to look at the front of the ship. A few minutes of exploring later, the two friends met back up in front of… a set of orange trees?

"Why would pirates have orange trees on their ship?" wondered Tidus out loud. "Ah well, let's go, Wakka." No response. "Wakka?" asked Tidus as he approached his friend, who appeared to be rooted to the spot. "Wakka, what are you…?" Tidus stopped short as he saw what caused his friend to stop.

It was… a small animal. But it was the strangest looking animal they had ever seen. Their first thought was _'raccoon'_, but no raccoon they had ever seen or read about had hooves and antlers, or all-brown fur. Adding to its bizarre appearance was the fact that it stood on its hind legs, wore maroon shorts and a pink top hat with a white 'X' on it, and had a blue nose.

At the moment, the strange creature seemed to be staring blankly at them, just as they stared back at it. Then, suddenly, its eyes widened with terror, as if only just then realizing they were there.

"AAAAAHHHHHHH!!" it screamed as it scrambled back and hid behind the corner to the stairs… well, 'hid' would be a stretch, since it seemed to only be hiding half of its face behind the corner, while leaving its whole body in plain sight. Both Tidus and Wakka quirked an eyebrow at the creature's more than pathetic attempt at hiding. Suddenly, Tidus realized something.

"Wakka?" he began slowly. "Did that thing… just scream?"

-- _(Back to present time)_

"What was that?" asked Sora after hearing the scream. "I don't know," replied Kairi, looking just as confused as he did.

"Me neither," said Riku. "Hey Tidus, Wakka! You up there?" he called out, hoping they would answer.

At that moment on the ship, Riku's voice snapped Tidus and Wakka back to the present, making them realize what had just happened. They then began to panic. "Aw crap, Wakka! We've been caught!" said Tidus frantically, with Wakka looking just as nervous.

"Should we bail?" asked Wakka, looking over to his friend. Tidus looked over to him and nodded.

"RUN!!" they yelled simultaneously in a panicked manner as they dashed over to the front of the boat and leapt off onto the beach. Once they landed on the sand, they took off like a shot towards the other side of the island, leaving a huge dust cloud in their trail.

Sora, Riku, and Kairi, upon witnessing the scene, all sweat dropped while quirking an eyebrow in confusion. "What… just happened?" Sora slowly asked. Neither of his friends could answer. Suddenly, a grumpy-sounding voice began speaking from above their heads.

"Oi, oi, what's all the noise? I'm trying to nap here!" said the voice. Sora, Riku and Kairi looked skyward to see a man with short green hair (_His hair is GREEN?_ thought the three of them in surprise) poking his head out from the crow's nest of the ship, an annoyed expression on his face. Though the three of them couldn't see much from their position on the dock, he definitely looked strong.

"What's going on out here?" came a female voice as a door on the ship opened and a teenage girl with orange hair stepped out.

"N-N-Nami!" came a stammering, high-pitched voice that sounded like it came from a very young boy, although the three of them couldn't see its source anywhere from their vantage point. However, they now knew that the girl's name was 'Nami'. "There were some strange guys on the ship just now! They ran off a few seconds ago!"

"Strange people, you say?" came another feminine-sounding voice, although it sounded older and more mature than that of the orange-haired girl. A tall, slender woman with long black hair and blue eyes then stepped out onto the deck from another door, revealing the speaker.

"Oi, what's all the noise out here?" A man with blond hair that hung over his left eye appeared on the main deck, apparently having come from down below. He wore an all-black suit with gold buttons on the jacket, with a blue undershirt. He currently had a lit cigarette in his mouth that he took puffs from at random intervals.

"Geez, and I was having such a good sleep," came a grumbling voice from down below, as a teenage boy came up onto the deck. He wore brown overalls with no undershirt, a dark yellow, net-patterned bandana on his head, and what looked like a pair of goggles overtop the bandana. What really stood out about this person, though, was not his attire, but his rather long nose, the longest any of the three friends had ever seen on anyone. Of course, living on a remote chain of islands didn't give a huge selection of people to compare to.

"E-everyone!" There was that high-pitched voice again. Where was it coming from? "I-I just saw some people on the boat a minute ago! They're gone now, but they were definitely here!"

"You mean those guys?" said the green-haired man as he pointed to the trio on the dock, causing all eyes to fall on them. A tiny animal even hopped onto the railing to look at them. Sora and Kairi froze, nervous expressions appearing on their faces. Riku, on the other hand, just smirked a little.

"Uh… no," said the animal, now confirmed to be the owner of the young-sounding voice… wait, WHAT?!

"Who said strange guys!? I wanna see!" The three jerked their heads up to see a teenage boy with short black hair and a straw hat hanging from behind his head, sitting in a crouched position on the roof of the main cabin and grinning excitedly. He had seemingly appeared out of thin air, startling everyone.

"Dammit, Luffy! Don't _do_ that!" yelled the long-nosed guy, thus letting the trio know that this person's name was 'Luffy'. However, Luffy didn't appear to be listening, as he had suddenly begun staring intently at Sora. The spiky-haired teen was getting a little nervous under this guy's stare. Why was he looking at him like that?

"WHOOAAA!!" exclaimed Luffy as his eyes grew as wide as saucers. He then hopped off the ship and landed directly in front of Sora, causing him to jump back slightly in surprise. "Your hair is so COOL!! How does it do that?! Tell me! Tell me!" He then grabbed Sora's shoulders and began shaking him, begging him to tell him the secret to his hairstyle, before getting bonked over the head from behind.

"Luffy! Don't be so rude!" yelled an irate-looking Nami as she stood behind Luffy with her fist held up, having apparently jumped out after him. Seeing the furious look on the orange-haired girl's face, the trio wisely decided to back up a few steps.

"Awww," complained Luffy as he rubbed the newly formed lump on his head while pouting. "But I just wanted to find out how he gets his hair like that!" "THERE ARE MORE POLITE WAYS OF ASKING, YOU IDIOT!!" shouted Nami.

While Nami chewed Luffy out, the other female crew member lightly leapt out of the ship and landed gracefully on the dock between the three friends and the bickering pirates, quickly straightening up. For some reason, the blond-haired man began swooning at the sight, his visible eye appearing to turn into a heart. "Ah, Robin-chwan! Such grace! Such beauty! Such elegance! Truly my heart belongs only to one such as thee!"

"Just like with every other woman you lay eyes on, dumbass?" said the green-haired man in a sarcastic tone, having climbed down from the crow's nest.

"What was that, moss-head?!" shouted the blond-haired man angrily, causing an angry vein to pop out on the green-haired man's forehead.

"You wanna fight, shitty cook?!"

"Bring it, cactus!"

The blond man then aimed a kick at the green-haired man, who whipped out a pair of swords, one for each hand, and blocked it. The two then began rapidly exchanging blows and insults, neither gaining a decisive advantage over the other. Sora and Kairi looked on with widened eyes, while Riku just snickered a little at the display.

"Excuse me," said the woman standing in front of the trio, snapping their attention back to her. "Could you please tell us where we are?"

* * *

A few minutes later, after the respective pirates had stopped bickering, everyone was standing on the beach, the pirates opposite the islanders. Selphie had arrived just then, having slept a bit later than the others, since none of them could wake her up, and Tidus and Wakka had come back out from the other side of the island, having seen Sora, Riku and Kairi talking to them peacefully.

Kairi then began speaking. "I guess we should introduce ourselves," she said with a smile. She then gestured towards herself. "I'm Kairi! Nice to meet you!"

"I'm Sora! Great to meet you!"

"My name's Riku."

"I'm Tidus!"

"The name's Wakka, ya?"

"And I'm Selphie!" said Selphie with a wave.

After the native Destiny Islanders had finished introducing themselves, Luffy grinned proudly as he threw out his chest. "My name is Monkey D. Luffy! Future King of the Pirates!" he said enthusiastically.

Sora suddenly gave him an odd look. "Your name is Monkey?" he asked, causing Luffy to look at him with a confused expression. "Huh?" he replied confusedly while scratching his head. "No, it's Luffy." Sora got even more confused. "How does that work?" he wondered out loud. Riku looked thoughtful for a moment, then spoke up.

"I think I know," said the silver-haired boy. "Where they're from, their family names come first, and their given names come last. Am I right?" Luffy nodded at the statement while grinning. Sora gained a look of understanding, but still had a slightly confused expression. "That's a bit of a weird way of doing it," he said softly, but left it alone.

The green-haired man then spoke up. "Roronoa Zoro," he said simply.

"I'm Nami," said Nami, smiling and giving a small wave.

"The name's Sanji," said the blond-haired, black-clad man as he took out a cigarette and lit it.

"I'm Tony Tony Chopper, but just call me Chopper!" said the small animal… thing… rather cheerfully. The six teens were still wondering what he was, exactly. And how was he able to talk? They'd have to ask him later.

"I am Nico Robin," said the tall woman with a light smile.

"And as for me," began the long-nosed teen as he got into a declaratory pose. "Just call me… CAPTAAAAAAIIINN USOPP!!" He then shot out his arm and pointed his finger in the directions of the islanders. "I am known and feared across many islands and oceans! Should any decide to mess with me or my friends, my ten million followers will be right here to wreak vengeance upon them!"

A dead silence followed immediately afterward for a few moments, broken only by the sound of a light wind gusting across the beach.

"Ten million followers?! Really?! Wow, Usopp, you're amazing!" said Chopper amazedly, breaking the silence while looking at said liar with stars in his eyes.

"Ten million followers?! Where?!" said Sora, looking around frantically. Then, suddenly, realization dawned on his face. "Wait, that can't be right… you can't fit that many people onto this island, let alone that ship…"

Riku and the rest burst out laughing at Sora's display. "You actually believed that?! Man, Sora, you're so gullible, it's unbelievable!" Riku shouted through his laughter before being overcome with mirth once more. Sora's face went slightly red with embarrassment as he chuckled nervously.

Once the laughter died down, Tidus spoke up. "So, then, he's the captain of your crew?" he asked, pointing to Usopp.

"No, Luffy is," said Nami, gesturing towards the Straw Hat captain, who grinned proudly. "Usopp always says stuff like that, so don't believe everything you hear from him." At that, the said long-nosed teen slumped in depression.

"So, where are we, exactly?" asked Luffy as he began looking in random directions.

Sora and Kairi looked at each other, smiled, and nodded. They then turned back to the Straw Hats and spread their arms out in a welcoming gesture. "Welcome to Destiny Islands!"

* * *

Author's Note: Well, what do you think? This is my first stab at writing a fanfic of my own after putting it off for so long, so please no flames. I would just like to tell you not to expect consistent updates on this. I only write when I have the motivation, because forcing myself to write causes two things: A) A big headache for me (literally), and B) The story quality goes down. So don't go holding your breath for updates. But I do have big plans for this story, and I don't want to abandon it. Reviews would be much appreciated.

Many thanks to Fictionreader98 and Zoneshifter D for their help with this chapter!

* * *

Chapter 2 preview:

"_You'll never make it on the Grand Line," said Zoro, looking Riku in the eye. "You're not ready. The enemies you'll face are years beyond your skill level. Not to mention your raft isn't nearly enough of a vessel for this ocean. With the way the Grand Line is, it'll fall apart before you get to even one island." He then turned around to walk away, as if that was all there was to say on the matter. _

"_Hold it!" called out Riku's voice. Zoro stopped and turned around, only to have Riku toss a small wooden sword at his feet. _

"_Fight me," challenged Riku. "If you win, I'll concede that we're not ready. But if I win, you have to take us along on your ship!"_

Stay tuned for Riku vs Zoro next chapter!


	2. Darkness Approaches

Heart of a Pirate

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or Kingdom Hearts. They belong to Eiichiro Oda and Square Enix respectively.

**Chapter 2: Darkness Approaches**

The Going Merry fell through the air, the ocean below it approaching faster and faster towards it. Just a few minutes earlier, it had been slowly moving back down towards the sea under the support of a giant, air-filled octopus that acted as a hot air balloon to make sure the ship got back down to ground level at a safe speed. But now, the said octopus had progressively deflated as it got closer to the surface of the ocean, and had just instantly shrunk down to the size of a regular sea octopus, leaving nothing but Breath Dials to slow the ship's fall. On board the ship were the Straw Hat Pirates, who were clinging onto whatever was closest to them for dear life and bracing for impact, with Usopp and Chopper screaming in terror the entire time.

A few seconds later, the ship hit the water hard, sending up a huge splash that showered its occupants with several gallons of seawater. The ship itself creaked and groaned as it rocked back and forth on the water, but somehow managed to remain intact. After about a minute, everything settled back down.

0o0o0o0o0o0o-- _Going Merry, Deck_

"Are you OK, Nami-san, Robin-chan?!" yelled Sanji once the ship settled down.

"That was scary!" said Nami frantically, still clutching the side of the ship. "Why did the octopus shrink all of a sudden?"

"I guess it ran out of air," commented Robin, standing up.

Zoro got up as well. "Geez, what happened?" he grumbled, dusting himself off.

Luffy, however, was still lying on his back on the deck, and just as he was about to get up…

SPLAT!

The said octopus, now several times smaller, landed on the Straw Hat captain's face after falling out of the sky. He simply laughed as he lifted it off his face. "Well, we made it! Without dying, too!" he said cheerfully. He then looked at the octopus and grinned. "Hey, thanks for the help!"

"But, man," Sanji began, lighting up a cigarette and taking a puff. "What a place that was."

Sanji, of course, was talking about Skypiea, the land in the sky that had been at war for over 400 years, over the "sacred" land of Upper Yard. Upper Yard had turned out to be a piece of an island on the Grand Line that had been blasted into the sky by the Knock-Up Stream, an ocean phenomenon in which gas pockets on the ocean floor would periodically erupt, blasting huge amounts of water into the sky, right below Skypiea. The Straw Hats had actually used it to get to Skypiea themselves, after having their boat modified by Montblanc Cricket and the Saruyama Alliance, an ocean salvage crew who wanted to know for sure whether Skypiea existed or not.

Upon arriving, Luffy and the rest had met Conis, a Sky Island dweller, her father, Pagaya, and her cloud fox, Suu. After lunch and a few quick lessons about Wavers and Dials, Conis and Pagaya told them about Upper Yard and how no one may set foot on it. Naturally, it made Luffy want to go. But before that could happen, the local law enforcement, the White Berets, attempted to arrest the Straw Hats for illegal entry, despite the fact that they were brought up regardless of whether they paid the entry fee or not. The situation escalated, and soon Nami, Zoro, Chopper and Robin were whisked into the middle of Upper Yard, along with the Going Merry, to await so-called "God" Enel's Judgment.

Seeing this, Luffy, Usopp, and Sanji set out to rescue them. With the help of Conis, they got themselves a boat, but saw that Conis was acting strangely, along with everyone else in town. She then revealed that everyone was being forced by Enel to bring all Blue Sea dwellers into Upper Yard to be "judged"; in other words, sacrificed to Enel and his four High Priests. Right after saying this, Luffy and Conis were nearly incinerated by a giant bolt of lightning, but were saved at the last second by Gan Fall, a sky mercenary who had helped the Straw Hats earlier on when they had first arrived on the White Sea. After Gan Fall left to hide Conis from Enel, the three remaining Straw Hats set out into Upper Yard to save their crewmates, as well as their ship.

Long story short, the Straw Hats defeated Enel and his Priests and grabbed a big pile of gold from Upper Yard. They then ran away from the Skypieans with their treasure, whom they thought were trying to punish them with a giant cannon for stealing their gold (in truth, they were merely trying to give them a big golden support beam as thanks), and escaped from Skypiea with the help of Conis and Pagaya, which brings us to where we are now.

"After coming back down, it certainly seems rather far away," commented Robin, in response to Sanji's statement. Nami nodded. "It's almost like we were dreaming," she responded.

"It was a land of dreams!" Chopper said happily, in an entranced tone. "I wonder if we'll ever go back someday?"

Zoro smirked at him. "You'll go there when you die," he said. "Or at least somewhere close." "Zoro, are you sure you'll go to Heaven?" Usopp piped up, causing a vein to pop out on Zoro's head. "Why, you…!" he growled.

"Well, things have definitely calmed down for now," interrupted Sanji as he walked towards the kitchen door. "I'll go put on some coffee." "I want food, Sanji!" exclaimed Luffy. "I'll make some, so just drink the coffee and wait!" replied Sanji in an annoyed tone.

"OK!" Luffy said cheerfully as he got to his feet. "By the way, where are we?" he asked, looking around. He then spotted a small island about 50 meters from the ship. "Hey, an island!" Luffy exclaimed happily.

"Where?!" asked Chopper eagerly, as the rest of the crew looked in the direction Luffy was looking. "Hey, he's right!" confirmed Nami. "The Log Pose isn't pointing towards it, though…" "Perhaps the island it locked onto from the sky is a little further along," provided Robin. Nami nodded in agreement.

"Who cares! Let's go check it out!" Luffy shouted jubilantly as he reared his arm back. "Luffy, no, wait…!" cried Nami, reaching out a hand to stop him, but it was too late as Luffy swung his arm forward and stretched it out, his hand traveling all the way to the nearest palm tree on the island. He then grabbed it and let his arm retract, pulling the rest of his body towards the island. Nami then sighed exasperatedly. "He's always so reckless," she groaned.

"Dammit, Luffy! Get back here! We wanna go too!" shouted Usopp, shaking his fist. "Yeah! Wait for us!" Chopper yelled.

"Oi," came Zoro's voice, before they could shout anything else. They then turned around to see Zoro standing next to the handle of one of the ship's giant oars, with an annoyed expression on his face. "If you wanna follow him, grab an oar and start rowing."

"Zoro, no! We don't know who or what is on that island, and besides, what if it changes the Log Pose's orientation?" said Nami worriedly. The swordsman simply 'hmphed'. "Doesn't matter. Luffy's already there, and I doubt he'll want to leave, so we might as well follow him," he replied.

Realizing it was a lost cause, Nami simply sighed. "Alright, fine, we'll dock here for the night," she said. Seeing no further objections from anyone, Chopper shifted into Heavy Point and grabbed the handle of the second oar, Usopp following suit. Usopp, Chopper, and Zoro then began rowing the ship towards the beach of the island. Once there, they dropped anchor next to a small dock. They were about to hop out, but then Robin stopped them.

"Hold on, everyone. I'd like to have a look at this island myself, but it's nighttime and we won't be able to see much. We should at least get some rest and wait for morning before we go exploring anywhere," she said, with Nami nodding in agreement.

"But what about Luffy?" complained Usopp.

"I wouldn't worry too much about him," Zoro answered, jerking his thumb towards a certain spot on the island. The other four Straw Hats looked to where Zoro was pointing, and saw the captain underneath a palm tree… sprawled out on his back and snoring away. Usopp and Chopper face-vaulted at the sight, while Nami shook her head in an exasperated manner. Robin simply giggled softly.

Everyone on deck then left to turn in for the night, except Zoro, who went to keep watch from the crow's nest. Sanji came out moments later with the coffee he had just made, and when he saw the island they were docked next to, Robin filled him in as he poured her a cup of the hot drink. Sanji shook his head at Luffy's antics as he left to catch some rest himself. Robin stepped inside her and Nami's room, while Zoro took his place up in the crow's nest, and once again, everything was still and silent… save Luffy's occasional snores.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-- _Going Merry, the next morning_

All was quiet on the ship that morning. Sanji and Usopp were still sleeping, Zoro was napping in the crow's nest (again), and Luffy was still slumbering in the same spot underneath the palm tree on the island. The only ones awake were Nami, Robin, and Chopper; Nami and Robin, because they were normally early risers, and Chopper, who had woken up randomly at that time, and couldn't get back to sleep.

Grumbling softly to himself, Chopper hopped out of his hammock and climbed the ladder from the men's sleeping quarters to the main deck. Remembering that they had arrived at a new island the night before, he decided to head over to the rear of the ship to have a look, since the rear was higher than the front and would therefore offer a better vantage point.

However, once he had climbed the stairs, he stopped. Standing in front of him was a teenage boy, probably not much younger than Luffy. He wore a light beige sports vest, some baggy yellow pants with leather straps that formed the shape of an 'X' on the front of each leg, green sandals, and a blue headband. He also had red hair, put into a strange hairdo that had a 'wave' at the front which extended almost a foot from his head, while the rest of his hair was cut rather short.

"Wakka, what are you…?" Just then, another boy, who looked younger than the first, came walking over, abruptly stopping next to the first one. He wore a yellow short-sleeved jacket with white sleeves that opened down the front to expose his torso, a pair of gray shorts, which for some reason had one leg longer than the other, and a pair of brown sandals with gray and yellow straps. His hair was a light brown color, and only long enough to reach the neck. It was also a bit messy.

For the next few seconds, Chopper stared blankly at the two boys, who in turn stared in curiosity back at him. Suddenly, Chopper realized that these people were not on the ship when they came in. Who were they?! What did they want?! And what could he do about it?! Chopper then did the only thing he knew to do.

"AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!" he screamed as he scrambled back and attempted to hide behind the corner to the stairs. But, as usual, he failed miserably by leaving most of his body in plain sight.

"Wakka?" the younger boy slowly began. "Did that thing… just scream?"

0o0o0o0o0o0o-- _The beach, minutes later_

After the two boys that Chopper ran into had run off, the rest of the crew, alerted (or in the case of Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp, awakened) by Chopper's scream, all began making their way onto the deck. After Chopper had told everyone what he saw, Zoro pointed out three other teenagers on the dock where the Going Merry was anchored. However, they were not the ones that Chopper had just seen.

Standing to the left of the other two was a young, brown-haired, blue-eyed teenage boy, probably no older than 14. He wore red shorts, a hooded black and white zip-up T-shirt, and a pair of rather large yellow and black sneakers. He also wore white, fingerless gloves that had round metal plates on the backs, and a neck chain with what looked like a small metal crown hanging from it. What stood out the most about this boy was his spiky brown hair, which seemed to defy the laws of physics with the way it spiked upward and outward. Right now, he looked rather nervous under the gaze of the Straw Hats.

Next to him, between the other two, was a young, red-haired, blue-eyed teenage girl, who looked about the same age as the boy on the left. She wore a white tank top, with another black one underneath, magenta shorts with a mini-skirt of the same color overtop of them, and white shoes with purple lining. She also wore a yellow bracelet on her left wrist, a purple one just under her left shoulder, a plain black choker on her neck, and a small gold necklace with a pendant on it. Currently, she sported the same look of nervousness at the collective gaze of the crew.

Finally, standing on the far right, was another teenage boy with silver hair and teal-coloured eyes, who looked to be a year older than the other two. He wore a sleeveless yellow and black shirt with black straps crossing over the chest, a pair of dark blue jeans underneath a pair of lighter blue pant legs held up by a pair of straps connected to his belt, which also had a pair of belts that tightened the legs around the ankles, and a pair of blue, black, white, and yellow sneakers. He also wore black bracelets on his wrists and black gloves on his hands. Currently, unlike the other two, he wore a small smirk of pride at the way the pirates regarded him.

Not too long after Zoro had pointed them out, Luffy woke up from his sleep on the island and zipped over to the ship with his rubber powers, startling everyone, most especially Usopp, by appearing so suddenly. However, while Usopp was making his displeasure known, Luffy had spotted one of the most amazing things (to him, at least) he had ever seen; the spiky hairstyle of one of the new group of teens. He immediately inquired as to how it did that; that is, if 'inquired' meant getting in Sora's face and trying the shake the answer out of him. Fortunately, Nami put a stop to it in the usual manner by bashing him over the head and yelling at him.

While that happened, Robin got down from the ship to ask the children where they were at the moment. As usual, Sanji ended up swooning over her, prompting a smart remark from Zoro, which then escalated into yet another fight between the two.

Once everything had calmed back down (with a little help from Nami, who ended up bashing both Zoro and Sanji over their heads to get them to stop fighting), the silver-haired one of the group, whom they would later know as Riku, suggested that they all get onto the beach so that they could properly introduce themselves. After introductions were made, Sora and Kairi gave the Straw Hats a grand welcome to the place they now knew as Destiny Islands.

--

"You know, Luffy," spoke up Usopp, gaining the Straw Hat captain's attention. "We never did get to take that vacation we wanted to take up in Skypiea, did we?"

Luffy stared at him for a few seconds, then grinned. "Hey, you're right! This is the perfect opportunity!" He then turned to the Destiny Islanders lined up in front of them. Raising a fist, he shouted "What are we waiting for?! Let's have some FUN!"

"YEAH!" they shouted back, raising their own fists.

--

A short time later, Tidus, Wakka, and Sora had gone with Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper to do who-knew-what, Selphie and Kairi had begun conversing with Nami (who had gone back inside the Going Merry and changed into her shorts and bikini top) over random topics, and Robin had gone off on her own to do some exploration of the island.

Riku had attempted to question Sanji about the Straw Hats' adventures up until getting to Destiny Islands, but was ignored when the cook noticed Nami's change in attire and began swooning over her in the usual manner, soon rushing off to find flowers for her. Giving up on getting Sanji to tell him anything, Riku turned to Zoro, only to find him napping against a palm tree and snoring loudly, causing the silver-haired boy to slump his shoulders in exasperation at the sight. He then turned to follow Sora, Tidus and Wakka to Luffy, Usopp and Chopper, hoping that at least one of them would be willing to recount their story.

_Meanwhile, with Nami, Kairi, and Selphie…_

"This is such a beautiful beach!" exclaimed Nami with a big smile on her face as she walked across the beach with Kairi and Selphie on either side of her. She stretched her arms and took a deep breath, then let out a contented sigh.

"Isn't it?" replied Selphie with a smile. "And it's like this year-round!"

"Really?" said Nami, looking slightly amazed. The two girls nodded. Nami smirked. "I could get used to this!" she laughed, causing the other two to laugh as well.

"So, how often do you get pirates staying at these islands?" asked Nami once they were finished laughing. Surely an island as beautiful as this one would be well known to other pirates further along the Grand Line.

"Actually, we almost never see outsiders," replied Selphie, causing Nami to raise an eyebrow.

"Really? You don't?" she asked in surprise. Both Selphie and Kairi nodded.

"Yeah. The last time anyone around here saw any outsiders was when some pirates came here over twenty years ago, according to our history records," said Kairi, causing Nami to raise her eyebrows. "And as for before that, there aren't any existing records of any outside visitors." She decided not to say anything about how she herself had come from a place outside of Destiny Islands that she couldn't remember, since it wasn't important. Meanwhile, Nami's eyes were wide with bewilderment.

"Outside visitors are _that rare?_" she asked in surprise, prompting Selphie and Kairi to nod again in confirmation.

_That's so strange,_ thought Nami to herself. _You would think that any one island on the Grand Line would get plenty of pirate visitors, but these girls are telling me that over two decades have passed since the people of the islands have seen any pirates from the outside, and that no one remembers any such thing happening anytime before that! How is that possible?!_

She then looked down at her Log Pose. _Has no one's Log Pose ever locked onto this island's magnetic field? If so, why? Even others' Log Poses were able to lock onto Skypiea's magnetic field, even if by some freak coincidence, but from what I can tell, there's no way for it to lock onto this island! How can that be?!_

Nami decided to think about it later. If what Kairi and Selphie said was true, then she and the rest of the Straw Hats were in no danger of being discovered by the Marines while they were here. They could finally relax without worrying!

Then again, that's what we said up at Angel Beach, and look what happened then, thought Nami to herself. We should be at least a little cautious, should something happen again.

"Nami?" came Selphie's voice, jerking Nami out of her reverie. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and turned to Selphie with a smile. "Sorry, Selphie, I kind of zoned out there," she replied apologetically. Selphie just waved it off.

"Don't worry, it happens," she replied with a smile. Kairi then cleared her throat, bringing both Nami and Selphie's attention to her.

"So, what kinds of things have you guys done on your travels on the ocean?" she asked Nami, looking slightly eager. "You don't seem like bad people, but I imagine you must have had your fair share of adventures up until arriving here. I know Riku would do just about anything to hear about the things you've done on the sea, but he doesn't seem to be having much luck with your crewmates." The three of them laughed at that, having seen Riku's earlier attempts to get Sanji or Zoro to tell their story.

"So, will you tell us about your journey on the sea?" asked Kairi after they had finished laughing.

Nami considered for a moment, with Selphie and Kairi looking on with anticipation. She didn't see any harm in retelling their journey to these kids. It wasn't as if it was something everyone in the crew wanted to keep private. Plus, it would probably be the first and possibly only time in these kids' lives that they would get to hear anything new about the outside world.

Not to mention that out of the entire crew, she was most likely the best one for the job. Luffy would probably find it boring to recount everything that happened since he set out on the sea, Zoro and Sanji-kun weren't really the story-telling type, Usopp would likely twist the story to make it sound like he was the one to get the crew out of every single pinch they had been in along the way, Chopper would probably get nervous talking in front of groups of people, and Robin hadn't been in the crew for even half of their journey.

Coming to a decision, she looked at the two other girls and smiled. "Sure, why not?" she replied good-naturedly.

"Great!" said Kairi and Selphie together, grinning with anticipation.

Nami then led them over to a shaded area close to the island waterfall and sat down, prompting the two girls to do the same. Clearing her throat, Nami then began the story…

0o0o0o0o0o0o-- _Bridged Island, with Sora, Tidus, Wakka, Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper_

While Nami was talking to Kairi and Selphie, Sora, Tidus, Wakka, Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper had made their way over to a small island close to the shore of the beach, which was connected to the main island by a wooden bridge. Its elevation was about eight feet higher than the beach sand, and it had a number of palm trees growing from it, one of which grew sideways, extending over the edge to hang its leaves over the water.

Sora, Tidus, and Wakka had just finished explaining to the three pirates on how to play Blitzball, apparently a very popular sport on Destiny Islands. The true game was played underwater, but the version they were going to play was the land version. Apparently, since the underwater sport required heavy breathing training for the player to be able to hold their breath for extended periods of time, a land-based variation of the sport was developed for the younger hopefuls to hone their skills with the ball as they trained their lungs for a number of years before being able to participate in the real thing. It had proven to be quite an effective regimen.

The way the game worked was that the players were split into two teams, one team on each half of the field, and on each side of the field was a goal net. It started with two players standing at the center of the playing field on their respective sides. The ball would be thrown straight up into the air, and the two players would attempt to swat the ball out of the air towards their teammates behind them. The object of the game was to get the ball into the opposing team's net, past their goalie. The team with the higher number of goals won.

However, there were restrictions that made the game more challenging. For instance, once a team member caught the ball, they could not move from their spot; they could only attempt to pass the ball to one of their teammates. And when a pass was made, the other team could attempt to intercept it. Also, in order to score, the player holding the ball did not throw the ball into the opposing team's net, but instead kicked it in. Otherwise, the goal did not count. And finally, when a goal was scored, the team who got the point would punt the ball towards the other team from their side of the field, giving them first possession of it.

"And that's how you play. Any questions?" asked Wakka, tossing his ball up and down as he talked.

When no one had any, the six immediately split into teams. On one side of the playing area were Tidus, Sora, and Luffy, while on the other side were Usopp, Chopper, and Wakka. Sora, Luffy, Usopp, and Wakka were offense for their respective teams, while Tidus and Chopper were their respective teams' goalies, with a pair of palm trees on each side of the area being used as nets. Wakka had originally questioned whether Chopper, being as small as he was, would be a good choice for goalie, but Usopp quickly convinced him that Chopper could handle it. Currently, Wakka and Sora stood at the center of the playing area facing each other, with the ball on the ground between them.

"Wait a second," said Wakka, bringing everyone else's attention to him. "We need someone to toss the ball to start the game!"

"I can help with that," came Riku's voice, startling everyone. They then turned to see Riku walking across the wooden bridge towards them onto the island platform.

"Riku! When did you get here?" asked Sora in surprise.

"Just now," replied Riku with a half-smile. He had originally come over with the intention to grill the three pirates for details on their journey up until arriving at Destiny Islands, but seeing that they were getting ready for a game of Blitzball, he decided it could wait a little longer. After all, they had all day for it.

"So, you need a referee to do the game-starting toss, eh?" he continued. "Just leave it to me!" He then walked over to where Wakka and Sora were and picked up the ball.

"Ready?" said Riku, positioning the ball between Wakka and Sora's heads in an underhand throwing position, prompting them to crouch down to prepare to jump. "First team to ten points wins. Begin!" He then threw the ball straight up, signaling the start of the game.

Sora and Wakka immediately jumped up and reached up for the ball as it fell. Wakka managed to beat Sora to it and swatted the ball backwards to Usopp, who managed to grab it. Sora immediately ran into position in front of him to try and screen any passes he tried to make. Wakka quickly ran into an open spot for Usopp to pass to him, while Luffy followed to block him as well. However, Wakka quickly faked him out and managed to get open, allowing Usopp to throw an overhand pass to him. He jumped up and spin-kicked the ball into the net, just barely getting it past Tidus' attempted save.

"Goal!" called out Riku. "Point for Wakka's team!"

"YEAH!" cheered Usopp and Chopper as they did a victory dance together. Wakka merely grinned proudly. Sora swung his fist in front of himself in mild frustration, while Luffy just pouted slightly.

Once Tidus retrieved the ball, Wakka punted it towards them from his side of the field and the game was on again.

Sora quickly ran forward and caught the ball, prompting Luffy to run forward to allow Sora a clear passing path. Sora, who at the moment was being screened by Usopp, quickly maneuvered his arms around him and threw the ball towards Luffy. Luffy quickly caught the ball and dropped it in order to kick it towards the net, but before his foot could make contact, Wakka slid over and snatched the ball away out of mid-air, gaining possession. He then threw the ball to Usopp, who quickly caught and drop-kicked it towards Tidus' net before Sora could reach him. This time, however, Tidus managed to make a save by catching the ball.

Tidus then threw the ball to Sora, who quickly turned to pass the ball to Luffy. However, his hand slipped as he did so, causing his aim to go off slightly, and the ball went flying towards Wakka, who had just then been running to block Luffy again. "Oh no!" exclaimed Sora out loud.

Luffy was ready, however, as he quickly stretched his arms out and grabbed the ball out of the air right before Wakka could catch it, surprising him. He then let go of the ball and kicked it towards Chopper's net. Chopper, who had shifted into Heavy Point without anyone seeing, quickly attempted to block the ball from entering the net, but it just barely slipped through his hands, flying through the net and splashing into the water behind it.

"Yahoo!" cheered Luffy. "Point for us!"

"No fair! You cheated!" complained Usopp. Luffy just ignored it.

However, everyone else was dead silent, which confused Luffy a bit. He then turned around to see Tidus, Sora, and Wakka gawking at him and Chopper, while Riku looked at them with widened eyes. "What?" asked Luffy.

"Luffy…" began Sora slowly. "Did you just… stretch your arms?"

"And Chopper…?" said Wakka just as slowly. "Am I seein' things, or did you just grow a whole lot bigger and muscular?"

Luffy just grinned in response. "Yup! I did stretch!" he replied cheerfully. "I ate the Gomu Gomu fruit! I'm a rubberman!" To demonstrate, he hooked a finger into his mouth and stretched his cheek out two feet from his face, shocking and amazing the islanders even further.

"And I ate the Hito Hito fruit! I'm a Reindeer Human!" piped up Chopper, demonstrating by shifting into Walking Point, his 'original' reindeer form on all fours, then to Brain Point, his smallest form. By now, the islanders' eyes were practically popping out of their sockets at the sight (except Riku, who simply maintained an amazed expression on his face at the sights).

"How did you do that?!" they all chorused.

"Uh, guys?" whispered Usopp as he leaned over to Luffy and Chopper. "I don't think these guys know about Devil Fruits."

"Devil Fruits?" questioned Tidus, having heard Usopp. "What's a Devil Fruit?"

From there, the three pirates began an explanation of Devil Fruits. They discussed their own abilities, the various other unique abilities granted to users they had met on their voyage up to arriving at Destiny Islands, how no two Devil Fruits were the same, and how fruit users were unable to swim, becoming too weak to move once submerged in water.

"Wow…" said Riku at the end of the explanation, voicing the rest of the Islanders' thoughts. "So your Devil Fruit…" here he pointed to Luffy. "…turns your whole body into rubber, but still functions normally all the same." Luffy nodded in confirmation, grinning. And you…" he now pointed at Chopper. "You were originally a reindeer, but your fruit lets you turn into a semi-human form, as well as a mix of your original form and your human form, and you can communicate with both humans and animals, right?" Chopper nodded in confirmation as well. That explains how he's able to talk, thought Riku to himself.

"That's so cool!" exclaimed Sora, with Tidus and Wakka nodding in agreement. "I never knew there were things like that in the outside world! What other things are there like that out there?"

Usopp opened his mouth to say something, but Wakka cut him off. "We can talk about that stuff later! We've got a game to play here!" said the wavy-haired young man. For a brief moment, Riku looked slightly disappointed at that, but the look quickly disappeared as he took his spot at the edge of the playing area.

It was then declared that Devil Fruit powers were fair game, since each team had one fruit user each.

Meanwhile, Tidus had gone to fetch the blitzball from the water. Once he climbed back onto the island with the ladder, Sora punted the ball back towards the other three. Wakka caught it, and the game was back on.

From there on, things got more and more intense as Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper progressively picked up the on the game as they played. The two sides continued to attempt to score on each other, but were oftentimes thwarted by the other team, and when that team attempted to score, they were thwarted themselves.

Wakka and Usopp often had to find ways to maneuver the ball away from Luffy and his stretching limbs, made all the more difficult by Sora and Tidus, being the more experienced players between themselves and Luffy. But with Usopp's exceptional aiming skills and Wakka's overall game experience, they managed.

However, Luffy and Sora were no slouches in the playing department either, since Luffy's abilities allowed for great offensive strategies, and made passing easier. Chopper was easily their biggest challenge in the way of goal scoring, since his bulk in Heavy Point made it harder to get the ball past him into the net. But they pushed on nonetheless.

After about an hour of playing, the score was tied at 9-9, and Luffy, Sora, and Tidus had possession. Before getting the game started again, the three of them got into a huddle, discussing a possible strategy. Once finished, they broke off and got into their respective positions.

Once Wakka punted the ball towards them, Sora caught it… but then quickly threw it towards Tidus. Once he caught the ball, Tidus quickly threw it as hard as he could at Luffy.

"**Gomu Gomu no Fuusen!**" Luffy shouted as he took a huge breath and inflated his torso into a balloon as the ball approached him. Usopp, knowing what Luffy was about to do, immediately ran forward to stop the ball, but was too late, as the ball had made contact with Luffy's torso. Luffy then directed the ball towards Sora, who had sprinted across the playing area to get into position to score. The ball came soaring fast towards Sora, who quickly jumped up and kicked the ball towards the goal. Chopper quickly braced his hands in front of himself for impact, but the ball was coming so fast that once it hit his hands, it went straight up and over his head in an arc… and through the goal.

"Goal!" called out Riku. "Luffy, Sora, and Tidus win!"

"YEAH!!" cheered the said team as they danced together in celebration (on Luffy's prompt, of course).

"Aw, man! We were so close!" complained Usopp, with Chopper nodding in agreement

Wakka chuckled as he clapped the two pirates on the shoulders. "'ey now, bruddas, don't worry about it! You two did a great job for your first time playin', ya?" he encouraged.

"You think so?" said Chopper, turning to Wakka.

"Yeah!" he replied jovially. He then turned to Usopp. "You had great aim out there! Though, not as great as mine…" he said softly with a smirk.

"Oh really?" Usopp slyly replied with a smirk on his face. "Wanna prove it?"

"How?"

"A target practice contest."

Wakka smirked back. "You got it. Just lemme go retrieve the ball first, ya?" he said before walking away and jumping into the water. He then tossed the ball back up onto the island and climbed the ladder back onto it.

While Usopp and Wakka began getting ready for their competition, Luffy, Sora, and Tidus had stopped celebrating their victory and were wondering what to do next. Luffy then spotted Zoro a distance away under a tree, napping. A mischievous grin broke out on his face at the sight. "Hey guys," he whispered, gaining their attention. "Wanna have some fun with Zoro?"

"How?" they asked, now looking curious. Luffy's grin simply widened in response.

--

A few minutes later, Luffy, Sora, and Tidus stood off to the side admiring their handiwork on Zoro, with their hands over their mouths in an attempt to muffle their laughter, although it was failing miserably. And Zoro still hadn't woken up.

"Let's get out of here before he wakes up!" whispered Sora through his hands between laughs. The other two nodded, and the three of them raced off to where Usopp, Wakka, Chopper, and Riku were.

--

Usopp and Wakka now stood on the large wooden platform at the end of the beach, looking over their current target range. They had gathered up a number of pineapples and coconuts to use as targets. With some help from Chopper, they had set them up in strategic locations all over the beach: The tops of trees, the roof of the shack, the railings of the wooden walkways, and so on. Usopp would be using his slingshot to hit the pineapples, while Wakka would be using his blitzball to hit the coconuts. They each had 10 targets to hit, and 10 shots. Whichever one of them hit more targets with their allotted amount of shots won. Chopper would be the one to retrieve Wakka's blitzball after each attempt, while Riku once again took the position as referee. The silver-haired teen had originally intended to question the three pirates about their voyage right after the blitzball game, but given the current circumstances, he'd have to wait a little longer.

"You ready?" asked Wakka, smirking as he spun his ball on his finger.

"Ready when you are," replied Usopp, smirking back while gripping his slingshot.

With that, the two immediately commenced their competition, Wakka starting out first. He threw his blitzball towards a coconut, hitting it dead-on. Chopper immediately ran to grab the ball and threw it back to Wakka. "One point for Wakka!" said Riku.

Once that was done, Usopp took aim with his slingshot at a pineapple on top of a palm tree, which stood near the ladder to the wooden walkway that led to the platform he and Wakka currently stood on. "**Hissatsu: Namari Boshi!**" yelled Usopp as he fired a small metal ball bearing towards his target. The projectile hit the pineapple dead-on, tearing a hole clear through to the other side of the fruit. "One point for Usopp!" said Riku.

And so the contest continued on in much the same way, with each of them hitting their targets with amazing accuracy. Luffy, Sora, and Tidus watched amazedly as the two of them continue to get their targets and score points against each other. For a short while, the two of them continued to tie their scores, but then, at one point, when Wakka attempted to hit a coconut that had been placed on the wooden walkway, he made a slight miscalculation in his throw, and the ball ended up bouncing off the cliff face and heading towards the waterfall, where Nami, Kairi, and Selphie currently sat.

"I'll get it!" called out Chopper as he went to chase the ball, switching into Brain Point as he ran.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Children's Island, Near the waterfall_

"… and then we ended up here. That's about all of it up to now," concluded Nami. Near the beginning, she had altered the story of the battle with Arlong to sound like he and his gang had stolen their big haul of treasure and they had fought to get it back, rather than what had actually taken place. She didn't feel like dredging up her most painful of memories with people she had only just met that day, even if they were just young girls.

Kairi and Selphie, meanwhile, looked on with stars in their eyes. "Wow!" they both exclaimed together. "So you really fought against a clown pirate who could split himself apart?!" said Selphie amazedly.

"And visited a restaurant that floated on the sea?!" said Kairi just as amazedly.

"And fought and won against a gang of fishmen?!"

"And fought off an entire town of bounty hunters?!"

"And went to an island that had dinosaurs AND giants?!"

"And saved a whole desert island country from a criminal organization?!"

"And visited a city in the sky?!"

Nami nodded, smiling good-naturedly. "Yup, that's about it!" she replied cheerfully.

"That's amazing!" said Selphie, Kairi nodding in agreement. She and Kairi had been enthralled by the tale all throughout Nami's retelling. The things the pirates had done were above and beyond anything they could have imagined happening on the sea. The two of them made a mental note to tell Riku what they had just heard later on.

Just then, Wakka's blitzball came bouncing over, with Chopper running after it. As the ball rolled to a stop next to the girls, Chopper immediately grabbed it.

"Heh heh, sorry," apologized Chopper as he looked up at the three girls. "Usopp and Wakka were just having a little competition, and…" He stopped short as he saw Kairi and Selphie staring intently at him. "Uh, what's the matter?" he asked nervously.

"SO CUUUUUUUUUUUTE!!!!" squealed the two girls as they pounced and glomped the small bipedal reindeer, almost crushing him between themselves in the process. They began fighting over who got to hold him, but rather than playing tug-of-war with his arms, they tried as hard as possible to hug him against themselves, sandwiching him between themselves in the process.

"NAMI, HELP!!" screamed Chopper as he attempted to get out of the grip of the two crazed girls. Nami sighed, then stood up.

"Uh, Kairi, Selphie?" spoke up Nami, drawing the said girls' gazes towards her. "You might want to loosen your grip on Chopper. You're going to crush him if you're not careful."

Kairi and Selphie's eyes widened, then looked down at Chopper. They quickly let go of him and backed away a couple of steps, apologizing profusely for going crazy the way they did.

"Sorry, Chopper," said Selphie apologetically. "But we just couldn't help it! You just look so adorable!"

"Complimenting me doesn't make me happy at all! Shut up! Get away from me, moron!" said Chopper back to her. But contrary to what he was saying, he had an expression of pure delight on his face and was even doing a little 'happy dance'. Needless to say, Kairi and Selphie had to visibly restrain themselves from glomping him again.

Chopper then began walking back towards the other guys with the ball, only to find them laughing their heads off at him, having seen the entire thing. "IT'S NOT FUNNY! I COULD HAVE SUFFOCATED!" shouted Chopper, although it did little to stop their laughter.

--

Once they had gotten their laughs out, Usopp and Wakka immediately got back to their competition. So far, the score was still one point in Usopp's favour, but Wakka wasn't going to back down so easily. After a few minutes, it was Wakka's turn again. He threw his ball towards the next target; it hit, but the ball ended up bouncing away again, this time into the cave hidden by the bushes

"I'll get it!" said Sora as he ran into the cave to retrieve the ball. Sora chased the ball as it continued rolling through the tunnel, finally managing to grab it at the part where the tunnel opened into the cave. However, upon looking up, he saw someone inside.

0o0o0o0o0o0o-- _Children's Island, Secret cave, a few minutes earlier_

Robin walked through a long, dimly lit tunnel with a low ceiling before coming out into a small cavern. Looking up, she noticed a small hole in the roof of the cave that let a small amount of sunlight in, just enough to see the entire cavern. She also noted that as the wind gusted by on the outside, it made an eerie noise as it passed across the hole, almost like the howl of a ghost. However, Robin wasn't bothered by it.

She stepped further in to look around the cave. She noted that the walls were decorated with children's drawings, meaning that the children of the islands already knew about this place. She also noticed that some large tree roots had grown in through the walls of the cave.

However, what really caught her eye was the strange wooden door at the other end of the cavern. It had a simple golden border around it, which split and curled into an ornate design near the top of the door's arch. It also had no knob, or any visible way of opening it.

She began walking towards it to get a closer look, but stopped when she heard a sound, seemingly coming from the other side of the door. It was a low, faint rushing sound, like a storm wind at low volume. Curiosity growing, Robin slowly and cautiously stepped forward towards the door. The closer she got, the louder the sound grew, causing Robin to grow slightly apprehensive. Just what was behind this door?

However, once Robin came within a foot of the door, the sound stopped, fading out as quickly as it came. _What could that sound have been?_ wondered Robin silently, lightly running her right hand over the door. _And why does this door have no way of opening it?_

Robin then heard footsteps. Turning around, she saw Sora standing at the spot where the tunnel opened into the cave, holding Wakka's blitzball. "Robin!" he exclaimed, looking slightly surprised at seeing her there. "Ah, hello, Sora," greeted Robin, smiling lightly.

"Uh, what are you doing here?" asked Sora, looking slightly nervous, which didn't go unnoticed by Robin. However, she decided to leave it alone for now. "Oh, I was just having a look around the island, and happened upon this cave," she replied. "Is there something wrong? Would you like me to leave?"

"Oh! No, no, it's fine… I just didn't expect to find you in here, that's all," replied Sora nervously, his eyes looking everywhere around the cave. _Best if she doesn't know that this is my, Riku, and Kairi's secret place,_ thought Sora to himself. _She doesn't look like the kind of person to blab about things anyway. I shouldn't worry too much._

Silence fell between the two. Robin merely looked at Sora, while Sora stared at the ground, scratching the back of his head. Deciding that she should probably leave, Robin began to walk towards the exit of the cave.

"You know, it's weird…" Sora suddenly spoke up, causing Robin to halt in mid-step. "I was actually in here just yesterday, just minding my own business…" As he said this, his eyes momentarily flitted towards a certain corner of the cave, then back to Robin. "And suddenly this guy in a cloak just appears out of nowhere!"

"Appeared out of nowhere?" repeated Robin, lightly tilting her head in curiosity. Sora nodded.

"Yeah, I didn't hear him walk in or anything, he just suddenly appeared, and then disappeared!" he continued. "He said something about coming to see the 'door to this world', and that 'this world has been connected', that it was 'tied to the darkness, soon to be completely eclipsed'. Whatever that means."

Here, he looked slightly thoughtful. "I figured he might be from another world if he was saying stuff like that, but I'm not sure exactly why he was here, or what he wanted," said Sora. Robin, meanwhile, looked to be deep in thought.

_Door to this world… Tied to the darkness… What could that mean?_ thought Robin to herself. She then took another look back at the wooden door. _Could that be the 'door' to this world? And if this world is tied to darkness like the man said, what does that mean for this world?_

_Are we… in danger?_

0o0o0o0o0o0o-- _Outside the cave, Wooden platform_

"What's taking Sora so long?" wondered Luffy aloud, voicing the other boys' thoughts. He and the other five remaining members of their current group were all waiting outside at the impromptu target range for Sora to come back with the blitzball. He had been gone for a few minutes now, and the boys were wondering what he was doing. Riku knew it was a small cave, so it shouldn't have taken Sora this long to retrieve it.

Just then, they heard Sanji yelling "OI!! LUNCH!!" from the ship.

Some ten minutes after introductions, during everyone's respective activities, Sanji had realized that, due to all the excitement with the children they had just met, none of the Straw Hats, including himself, had eaten breakfast that morning. Knowing that, as well as how big Luffy's appetite was and that there were six more people to cook for, he immediately got to work making an extra large lunch (or brunch, depending on how you look at it) for everyone; that is, after he had gathered what he thought to be the right arrangements of flowers for Nami and Robin, which he placed at their respective places at the table.

At that moment, when Luffy heard Sanji's voice, he immediately realized just how hungry he was, having missed breakfast that morning, which was something he had NEVER done before when he wasn't comatose. "Woohoo! Food!" cheered Luffy as he quickly reared back his fist. However, before he could stretch out his arm and pull himself to the ship…

"LUFFYYYYYY!!" came the shout of a very angry Zoro.

0o0o0o0o0o0o-- _Back inside the secret cave_

Just then, both Sora and Robin heard Sanji yelling "OI!! LUNCH!!" through the hole in the ceiling of the cavern.

"Ah, that's right," said Robin, getting Sora's attention. "We never did have breakfast this morning, did we?" She then turned to Sora. "Would you and your friends like to join us for lunch?"

Sora was just about to answer, when suddenly…

"LUFFYYYYYY!!"

The two of them heard Zoro shouting angrily at the top of his lungs, prompting Sora to rush outside and see what was going on, with Robin following behind at a leisurely pace. "I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!" came another shout from Zoro.

Once outside, both Sora and Robin were treated to the rather comical sight of an irate-looking, sand-covered Zoro chasing after Luffy.

Zoro had just woken up from his nap to discover that he had been buried up to his neck in the sand while he slept. How he hadn't woken up while it happened was beyond him. Furious, he burst out of the sand with his great strength and immediately went after the most likely culprit of such a prank: Luffy.

Zoro now pursued the said Straw Hat captain, brandishing one of his katanas in the air, while Luffy just skipped out of his reach while laughing, making the swordsman all the more angry.

Everyone else out there all began laughing uproariously at the sight, with Usopp holding his stomach with one arm and slapping his knee with the other as he attempted to control his breathing from all the laughter. Sora also broke out laughing at the sight, being one of the culprits of the prank himself, while Robin simply smiled in amusement.

0o0o0o0o0o0o-- _Going Merry, Kitchen, a few minutes later_

After Zoro had finally cooled off (although he still bopped Luffy over the head when he got close enough), the Straw Hats invited the islanders to eat with them. Not wanting to pass up an opportunity to see the inside of a real live pirate ship, as well as an opportunity to eat food made by a cook from the outside world, they quickly and eagerly agreed. With that, the six of them found themselves sitting with the pirates at a large table heavily laden with lunch. Seeing the pirates piling food onto their plates - or in Luffy's case, just grabbing it at random and stuffing it into his face – the six children quickly dug in.

It was the best cooking any of them had ever tasted in their lives (the six of them mentally apologized to their parents as they thought that).

As they ate, Kairi and Selphie began recounting Nami's story of the pirates' voyage across the sea to the four boys, who listened with great interest. Especially Riku, who was now finally getting his wish of hearing about the outside world. Every so often, Nami would correct them on certain details, while Usopp would often add some grandiose lie about something he did to save the entire crew, causing Chopper to become mystified, while also prompting Nami to smack him over the head and refute his claims, much to Chopper's disappointment.

Once the story was finished, Riku, Sora, Tidus, and Wakka stared in amazement at the seven pirates sitting at the table. At the moment, Usopp and Luffy were playing tug-of-war with a piece of steak that both of them had tried to grab at the same time, with Chopper looking on with great interest to see who would win, Sanji was currently flirting with Nami and Robin, who mostly ignored it as they ate, and Zoro just sat there eating normally as well. The four islanders could hardly believe that such a misfit crew could have done all the things that Kairi and Selphie had just described, but given what they had seen earlier of Luffy and Chopper's Devil Fruit abilities, they knew not to dismiss everything they had heard about them as nonsense.

"So, our island is just one of many on this 'Grand Line'?" spoke up Riku. Nami nodded in confirmation. "And the only way to navigate it is with one of those Log Poses you have?" he continued, pointing to the Log Pose on Nami's wrist. Nami nodded again.

"I guess that explains why no one who left the islands ever came back," mused Sora. "They never had a Log Pose." The rest of the islanders nodded.

"But then, why have we never gotten any visitors from the outside?" asked Riku. "If Log Poses lock onto the magnetic fields of individual islands, then why wouldn't anyone ever be able to find their way here?" Riku knew from the Straw Hats' tale that the only reason they had found their way to Destiny Islands was by a freak coincidence, which was why he didn't mention it.

"I've been wondering that myself," said Nami thoughtfully, staring at her Log Pose. "I would assume that others' Log Poses were unable to lock onto this particular island chain, although I can't imagine why. The only way that could happen is if this island didn't have a magnetic field, or at least one strong enough to lock onto. But given the nature of the Grand Line, that doesn't make a lot of sense. There's got to be something we're missing here…"

--

Once lunch was over, the pirates and islanders went back to their respective activities. Nami had begun showing Kairi and Selphie around the ship, while Luffy had started having some fun with Sora, Tidus, and Wakka by using his **Gomu Gomu no Rocket** maneuver to launch himself high into the air, with each of them taking turns hanging onto his back as he did so. They would go flying over the water, and once they let go of him, he would quickly whip his arm out and grab the overhanging palm tree on the island platform where they played their blitzball game, saving himself from falling into the water. Needless to say, the boys were having the time of their lives.

Riku, however, noticed Zoro walking over to the wooden wall that separated the two sides of the Children's Island, opening the door and stepping through. Knowing where Zoro's path would lead him, Riku quietly followed him.

0o0o0o0o0o0o-- _Children's Island, Rear beach_

Zoro walked along the beach, taking in the sights of a broken wooden bridge across some rock platforms, a wooden tower with a zipline leading to the other end of the beach, a large number of strange palm trees with purple and yellow leaves along with the green leaves, and a large yellow wooden star on a rock platform in the corner of the big rock walls.

Finally, he saw a wooden raft on the shore, complete with a sail and supplies. It seemed somewhat well-made, but it certainly wasn't fit for travel on the Grand Line, no matter how well-made it was. There was no substitute for an actual ship on this ocean.

"So, how do you like our raft?" came Riku's voice from behind Zoro, surprising him slightly, though he didn't show it on the outside. The swordsman turned around to see the silver-haired boy standing behind him with his arms crossed and a proud expression on his face. "It may not be a ship like yours, but she's pretty solid."

"This is your raft?" asked Zoro.

"Yup. Mine, Sora's, and Kairi's," replied Riku proudly. "It took us a few days, but she's finished. We're all planning to go on a big journey across the ocean with it. We were going to leave today, but when we saw your ship, we decided to wait on it a little longer."

"The three of you are really planning on sailing the Grand Line with this?" continued Zoro, gesturing to the raft.

"Yeah!" replied Riku with a hint of excitement in his voice, seemingly ignoring the warning tone in Zoro's voice. "We can't just stay cooped up in these islands our whole lives! There's a whole number of places and things out there just waiting to be discovered by us! We're gonna sail the Grand Line, find new islands and places, and go on all sorts of adventures!" He wore a proud smile at the end of his speech, but it slipped slightly when he saw the serious expression on the green-haired swordsman's face.

"Kid, you and your friends wouldn't last two minutes in the Grand Line. I don't know what you think is out there, but you're definitely not ready for it."

Riku was taken aback slightly by the bluntness of Zoro's words, but refused to back down. "What's that supposed to mean?!" he shot back. "You can't know that about us! I'm not afraid of what's out there!"

"I'm serious," Zoro continued, unperturbed. "I don't know how strong you think you are, but trust me on this. You don't have what it takes to survive out there, especially if you think that pile of firewood is going to be enough." He nodded his head towards the raft as he said the last part.

"Then how about I prove it to you?" challenged Riku as he tossed a wooden sword at Zoro's feet, causing him to raise an eyebrow. "One duel. Whoever gets hit first or loses their sword loses the fight. If you win, I'll concede we're not ready. But if I win…" he mulled it over in his head for a moment before looking back up. "… you have to take us along on your ship!"

Zoro considered for a moment. Did this kid really have what it takes? He certainly looked confident in himself, and rather strong for his age group. But Zoro had faced far more powerful enemies in the past, and compared to them, Riku wouldn't offer much of a challenge.

Then again, this kid seemed to think he could handle anything he encountered. On the Grand Line, that kind of confidence could get one killed if they didn't have the strength and skill to back it up, and this kid might not have either. Not yet, anyway. Images of his days as a dojo student began superimposing themselves over the current situation as he thought about it.

_This kid seems to have potential to be a great fighter,_ Zoro thought to himself. But he wouldn't know until I see for myself. If he fought him, he'd be able to see if he had it, and at the same time, he could convince him to hold off on sailing the Grand Line until he lived up to that potential. With that, Zoro made his decision.

"Very well," said the swordsman, bending down and picking up the wooden sword at his feet. "I accept your challenge."

0o0o0o0o0o0o-- _The beach, Five minutes later_

Riku and Zoro stood facing each other, a ten-foot distance separating the two. Kairi stood slightly to the side, acting as the fight-starter. She had done this many times in the past with the swordfights that Riku and Sora would often challenge each other with, so she knew exactly what to do.

The rest of the Straw Hats and Destiny Islanders were gathered a fair distance away, sitting and watching. Many of them watched in eager anticipation, while Sanji and Nami simply looked on with bored looks, knowing that Zoro wouldn't lose. Robin simply looked on with slight interest.

"Woohoo! Go Riku!" cheered Luffy.

"YOU IDIOT! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO CHEER FOR ZORO!" shouted Usopp.

Zoro just acted like he hadn't heard anything.

_I'd rather not use this dinky little thing to fight,_ thought Zoro to himself as he stared at the wooden sword in his hand, before raising his eyes to look at Riku. _But I have to show this kid how far behind he really is, lest he end up dead at the hands of another pirate. It's too soon for him to die._

"Combatants ready?" said Kairi as she raised her hand in the air. Riku got into an attack position, while Zoro simply shifted his feet so as not to get caught flat-footed. Kairi then swung her hand downward as she shouted "Begin!"

Riku rushed forward, his sword held behind him with both hands in a horizontal slashing position. He then swung his sword forward, aiming for Zoro's head, but Zoro merely blocked it with his own sword. Riku then jumped back and attempted an overhand slash towards his head, but was once again blocked. He then began rapidly slashing every which way around Zoro, trying hard to get a hit on him, but Zoro simply blocked every strike without even batting an eye. To make matters worse, he had only been holding his sword with one hand the entire time.

Then, after a particularly strong strike, while Riku's sword was still in contact with his own, Zoro placed his left palm on the 'blade' of his own sword and shoved back hard with both hands, causing Riku to lose his balance and fall on his back. However, Riku quickly propped his hands onto the sand on either side of his head and pulled his legs into a crouch, readying himself for a handspring maneuver. Riku then launched himself off the ground towards him, aiming a double-footed kick for his head, but Zoro quickly raised an arm to block the attack. Riku then made contact.

He might as well have kicked a solid brick wall.

Zoro then flicked his arm outward, sending Riku flying away from him. Riku's body hit the sand hard and went rolling a few feet away before coming to a stop.

Riku slowly eased himself off the sand into a sitting position, breathing heavily. _Dammit,_ thought Riku in frustration. _He's too fast! How am I supposed to beat him?! I can't even get a single hit in!_ He then got to his feet. _But I can't back down now! I might still be able to win! And even if I can't, it's still better than just giving up!_

Riku suddenly caught movement from Zoro, who instantly appeared directly in front of him. "My turn," said the green-haired swordsman as he readied a backhand strike. He then slashed across, with Riku barely managing to dodge by quickly leaning back. The tip of the sword missed his face by mere millimeters, and he could feel the wind from the attack across his face.

Zoro then raised his sword above his head and slashed downward, forcing Riku to block with his own sword using both hands. His eyes widened slightly at how much strength was behind the attack; too many of those would break his sword!

Zoro then began rapidly slashing every which way at Riku, much like how Riku had done near the beginning of the fight, forcing him onto the defensive. Only here, Riku dodged every strike rather than blocking them, mainly to keep his sword intact. He would duck, roll, sidestep, lean back, and even occasionally deflect blows to the side with his own sword. But the longer it went on, the more difficult it was for Riku to dodge, as Zoro's attacks kept coming faster and faster, and Riku grew increasingly tired from the effort of dodging. _I need to end this quickly,_ thought Riku as he sidestepped an overhand slash. Suddenly, he got an idea.

As Zoro closed in to deliver a horizontal strike, Riku leapt into the air as high as he could, the attack just barely passing underneath his feet. Zoro quickly looked up to see Riku in mid-air, his weapon poised to deliver a devastating overhead blow. However, Zoro simply sidestepped the attack, his expression never changing. Riku's sword crashed into the sand where Zoro was standing just a second ago, kicking up a cloud of dust.

_Damn, I missed!_ thought Riku in frustration as he attempted to catch his breath. Suddenly, looking up from his kneeling position, he saw Zoro standing over him, his sword arm raised to deliver another blow. Reacting quickly, Riku leapt back from his position, just barely avoiding the strike that came down a split second later.

Riku got up and stood slightly hunched over, panting heavily as he wiped some sweat from his brow, while Zoro stood a few feet away with a neutral expression on his face, tapping his sword on his shoulder in a bored manner. _He's not even breathing hard,_ Riku silently observed as he watched the Santoryu master.

"Are you going to give up yet?" said Zoro plainly. "Or do you still want to fight?"

"I'm… not done… yet…" panted Riku as he attempted to get his breathing under control. After a few deep breaths, Riku straightened up and reaffirmed his grip on his sword, prompting Zoro to get into a defensive stance. _I need to end this with one attack,_ thought Riku to himself, before sprinting forward. The instant he closed the distance between himself and Zoro, Riku swung his sword at him with all his might.

However, Zoro simply jumped back a short distance from the attack, the sword just barely brushing his haramaki as it passed across his torso. Riku, having not anticipated this, and being as tired out as he was, was thrown off balance, his sword arm extended away from his body. Zoro acted immediately by bringing his sword down hard on Riku's, knocking it out of his hand.

As soon as Riku regained his balance, Zoro leveled the tip of his sword at his face, causing him to freeze. "I win," stated Zoro, still keeping his neutral expression.

Sora, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie looked on with shocked expressions. Did Zoro… just beat Riku? The best sword user out of all of them? The one who took on all three of Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka, and beat them all down? He had been beaten? And so easily?

"Did Riku… just get beaten by Zoro?" Tidus slowly spoke up, his shocked and amazed expression still in place. Wakka and Selphie slowly nodded, while Sora just continued to stare in shocked silence.

_How did that happen?_ wondered Sora to himself in amazement. _How could Riku lose? He may be my rival, but he lost so easily to Zoro! Is he really that strong? Are ALL the pirates on the Grand Line this strong?_

Riku immediately dropped to his hands and knees, more from his crushing defeat than from his current exhaustion. _Dammit!_ thought Riku angrily as he pounded his fist into the sand. _Am I really that far behind?! Are other people on the Grand Line really this strong?!_

As if sensing his thoughts, Zoro squatted down to eye level with Riku, causing the silver-haired teen to look up into his face. Zoro then began to speak.

"You are skilled, I'll admit that." At that, a glimmer of hope entered Riku's eyes, but then disappeared with Zoro's next words. "But as you are right now, you won't survive. You'll need at least a few years' more training and experience before you decide to set off onto the ocean. Otherwise, you'll end up dead at someone else's hands, and it's way too soon for someone like yourself to die." He then stood up and turned around, his back to Riku.

"One more thing," continued the Santoryu master as he turned his head to look at the teen, once again gaining his attention. "If I had been truly serious, I would have killed you, even with the sword you gave me. That's the kind of strength you're up against on this ocean. Remember that." He then turned around and walked away, leaving Riku with his thoughts.

_I have to get stronger,_ thought Riku as he gazed at the palm of his hand, studying it as if it held the answers he sought. _But how? I need to be stronger NOW! I've been waiting YEARS to sail out into the ocean!_ He then clenched his hand into a fist. _There has to be a way to get stronger faster. There HAS to! I WILL find other worlds!_

Be careful what you wish for, Riku…

0o0o0o0o0o0o-- _Children's Island, Going Merry, nightfall_

Nami sat at her desk in her and Robin's room under the soft orange glow of the oil lamp next to her, drawing up a map of the Children's Island of Destiny Islands. She had spent some time after Riku's fight against Zoro taking some measurements and observations of the island to create a map of it, soon to be followed by a map of the main island the next day, both of which would be added to her map of the Grand Line.

She knew she was extremely lucky that the Going Merry had landed here from the sky. It was highly unlikely that they would have gotten to Destiny Islands otherwise, and thus she would never have gotten the chance to mark such an obscure location on her map, and thus the map would have remained incomplete. True, no one but any still-living members of the Gold Roger Pirates would have known about this island chain to be able to point out the fact that it would be missing on the map (earlier on that afternoon, she had asked Kairi and Selphie about the pirates who had apparently come to the islands over 20 years ago and found out that they were the Gold Roger Pirates), but she still considered herself lucky to be able to map its location. She made a mental note to write a journal entry about their time on the islands later.

At the end of the day, when the sun had begun to set, the six children said that it was time for them to head back home for the night. They promised to meet up with them again the next day as they climbed into their canoes and began paddling back to the main island, waving goodbye as they did so. Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, and Nami waved back to them as they did so, while Zoro, Sanji, and Robin simply watched after them, Robin smiling lightly.

After that, Sanji went back inside the ship to begin preparing dinner, with Luffy eagerly following to try and grab some food beforehand, prompting Sanji to quite literally kick him out of the kitchen and slam the door in his face while he got ready to cook, leaving Luffy outside pouting. Zoro went off to his usual spot on the ship to train, Usopp went off to his self-designated laboratory to work on who-knew-what, Chopper went to the guys' sleeping area to create Rumble Balls to replenish his almost spent supply, and Robin went to her and Nami's room to read. Nami, on the other hand, stayed behind on the dock to watch the sunset. After the sun had fully gone behind the horizon, Sanji announced dinner, much to Luffy's delight. Once everyone had eaten, they went off to do their own thing, leading to the current situation with Nami.

She was just about to put the finishing touches on the map when…

**CRAAAACK-**_**BOOM!!!!!**_

A loud thunderclap exploded outside, scaring Nami out of her wits. Thankfully, though, it didn't cause her to ruin the map. Putting her pen down, she quickly stood up and hurried to the door, pushing it open and dashing outside.

What greeted her eyes was the sight of horribly black clouds rapidly gathering in the sky above the islands, quickly billowing outward to envelop the entire sky all the way to the horizon. Lightning flashed at random intervals all around the sky, accompanied by loud cracks of thunder. Strong winds blew all around, shaking the island's foliage and stirring up rough waves on the water, which rocked the Going Merry slightly. Strangely enough, though, no rain fell.

Seeing no one else on deck, Nami quickly moved to warn the others about this storm, but stopped when she saw something strange on the ground in front of her. It was a puddle of some black substance that she couldn't identify; so black, in fact, that it appeared to absorb the light around it; almost as if it were pure blackness. With the way it moved around, it appeared to be alive. In fact, it looked as if it were growing and spreading outward, prompting her to move back a few steps to avoid being touched by it. A few seconds later, it stopped.

A small black head then emerged from the puddle, followed by a body, legs, feet, and claws. The puddle was gone; what now stood in front of Nami was a small, strange black creature with glowing yellow eyes that appeared to be looking intently at her. Nami might have thought it was cute, had it not been for the REALLY bad feeling she was getting from it.

Not wanting to tempt fate, she quickly ran back to her room in the cabin and opened the door, only to find three more of that same creature in there, looking back at her with those glowing yellow eyes while wiggling their antennae and giving off a sinister aura.

Abandoning that idea, she turned on her heel and ran onto the main deck, only to find at least a dozen more yellow-eyed black creatures appearing on it. Once finished forming, they all turned towards her, gazing almost hungrily at her.

Finding herself cornered, Nami slowly pulled out her Clima-Tact and put it together, getting into a defensive position. What the hell are these things?! she thought to herself, her apprehension growing.

The creatures then attacked.

* * *

Author's Note: Whew! Finally done! Damn, that was a long one. This was a tough chapter to write, not just because there's more content here, but because of the amount of exposition. I'm not a very fast writer when it comes to writing effective exposition scenes between sequences involving a lot of excitement, so I try to incorporate plot exposition into the more exciting parts of stories I write. Here, though, it was unavoidable. My real-life responsibilities also had a factor in it, what with my new job and getting my full driver's license (FINALLY!). In any case, I apologize for the long wait. But don't worry! The next few chapters will come out much faster, since, as evidenced by the cliffhanger, that is when all the excitement truly begins.

To all you Final Fantasy X fans out there, yes, I know, my version of Blitzball was different from the original, but I needed it to be that way in order to accommodate Luffy and Chopper's Devil Fruits. Sorry to you purists out there, but it was the best I could come up with, all things considered.

And to those wondering what I was referring to with the 'island' that they were playing Beach Blitzball on, it's that island platform where you spar against Riku at the beginning of the first game, when you're still at Destiny Islands. Though, since this story is AU, it is slightly bigger in this story.

Also, I'm sorry if the actual game in this chapter seemed a little lacking, but I'm not all that great at writing sports game scenes. Fight scenes are my true forte. Plus, the game won't be a part of the plot. I merely used it as an exposition device for this chapter.

And if any of you are still wondering when in the respective canon timelines this takes place, for One Piece, it takes place directly after the Skypiea arc (hence the reason the Going Merry fell out of the sky), and for Kingdom Hearts, it takes place at the beginning of the first game, one day after the completion of the raft. In this story, I had it where the Heartless did not attack on that night, but instead came one night after.

That's all I've got to say for now. Again, very sorry for the delay, and I promise that the next chapter will not take as long. And please review; the more reviews I get, the easier it is to get in the mood to write and therefore, the faster the next chapter comes out. Constructive criticism is welcomed with open arms.

Many thanks to Fictionreader98 and Zoneshifter D for their help with this chapter!

Techniques used in this chapter:

**Gomu Gomu no Fuusen**: Translation: Gum Gum Balloon. Luffy takes a huge breath and inflates his torso to a large size, resembling a balloon, hence the name. Like this, Luffy is able to deflect large, blunt projectiles, usually back towards the one launching them. Canon technique.

**Gomu Gomu no Rocket**: No translation needed. Luffy stretches out his arms (or one arm, depending on the situation), and retracts them to launch himself at high speed into the air, or towards a distant target. This move can also be used to ram an enemy with his body. Canon technique.

**Hissatsu: Namari Boshi**: Translation: Sure Kill: Lead Star. Usopp uses his slingshot to fire a small metal ball bearing towards his target, achieving a similar effect to firing a gun. Canon technique.

Chapter 3 Preview:

_When Sora regained his bearings, he found himself and Luffy standing on a large platform of land that looked like a piece of the Children's Island, surrounded by nothing but a dark vortex swirling around it, with the wind whipping their hair around as they regarded their current location. It was almost as if they were in the eye of a violent storm going on all around them._

_Suddenly, the two of them felt a huge sinister aura washing over them from behind. They quickly turned around… and felt their jaws hit the ground._

_There, right in front of them, stood a behemoth of darkness. It stood over thirty feet tall and had the same glowing yellow eyes as the creatures they had fought just seconds earlier. Its face and head were obscured by a mass of tentacles of darkness, which looked like it could pass as its hair. To top it off, it had a large hole in its torso shaped like a heart._

_**Uh oh,**__ thought Sora as he stared at the beast, recognizing it as the same creature he had fought in that strange dream he had the other day._

Stay tuned for Luffy and Sora vs Darkside next chapter!


	3. Separated

Heart of a Pirate

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or Kingdom Hearts. They belong to Eiichiro Oda and Square Enix respectively.

_Author's note: I just have one small thing to mention: My good friend FictionReader98 pointed out to me in a review that in the previous chapter, I had shown Nami knowing that the Gold Roger Pirates had been the pirates that had shown up at Destiny Islands 20 years ago, but I never explicitly mentioned that Kairi and Selphie had told her that. Whoops! I've gone back and corrected that error, saying that sometime during the rest of the afternoon, Nami had asked them who the pirates were that they had mentioned coming to Destiny Islands. Thanks for pointing that out!_

**Chapter 3: Separated**

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Destiny Islands, Sora's house, Sora's room_

Sora lay on his bed, thinking about everything that had transpired that day. He and his friends had met the Straw Hat Pirates, a very… odd… pirate crew from the outside world. True, this was the first time they had ever met pirates (or anyone else from the outside world, for that matter), but they way they acted and interacted with each other was a far cry from any mental image they had of how pirates acted. They had imagined them to be a bunch of gruff, delinquent criminals who liked nothing more than to drink, fight, and steal, but the Straw Hats were different. Sure, they could be a bit loud and belligerent (except Robin, of course), but they definitely weren't bad people.

They had then found out from them that their island was just one of many on a stretch of ocean that circled the entire globe, which was called the Grand Line. That itself had been a shock, but they had also found out about many things they had never thought possible; fruits that gave the people who ate them special abilities, islands in the sky, human/fish hybrids, giant sea monsters, etc. It was so unbelievable, yet they had seen first-hand evidence from Luffy and Chopper that what they said had merit. Seeing and hearing all of that made Sora, Kairi, and Riku that much more eager to set off on their journey with their raft.

Yet, they had also learned the sad truth that if they were to set off on a sea voyage at their current fighting level, they wouldn't survive for long, even if their raft could somehow survive the harsh conditions of the Grand Line. That fact had been a disappointment to all three of Sora, Kairi, and Riku, but it had hit Riku the hardest, since out of the three of them, he was the one who wanted to go on their journey the most. Heck, the whole thing had been his idea. But to suddenly find out that he wasn't yet ready, and still had a ways to go before he was… Sora couldn't imagine how hard that must have been for Riku to hear, let alone accept. He only hoped it didn't drive him to do anything drastic.

Of course, that was not to say that Sora himself was not affected by the outcome of Riku's fight with Zoro. Sora had always considered Riku to be his rival, the level of strength he felt the need to match or surpass, and seeing him defeated so easily by someone who happened to be traversing the same ocean they sought to explore was a bit of a shock to him. If _Riku_ wasn't yet strong enough for the Grand Line, what did that mean for Sora?

Sora then looked over to the model ship with propellers that hung from his ceiling, noting the two white dolls standing next to each other at the helm. He then thought back to his conversation with Kairi the previous day at sunset, remembering what she had said before they went home: _'I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great.'_

_And it would be, too,_ thought Sora with a frown. _Except that Zoro was probably right; we need more training. There's no point to going on an adventure like this if we're just going to get ourselves killed right off the bat. And I don't want Kairi to get hurt…_ He shook his head, clearing himself of those thoughts before he got too deep into them.

_On the other hand,_ thought Sora as a small smile crept onto his face. _It gives us plenty of time to improve our raft's design. We can design our raft to be more sea-worthy while we take some time to train and get stronger. With some reinforcements and upgrades, it'll be ready when __we're__ ready! _

He mentally congratulated himself for thinking of that. Even if they themselves were ready for the combatants they'd eventually have to face, it wouldn't mean anything if their raft wasn't sea-worthy. By taking time to reinforce their vessel, they'd have time to train themselves at the same time; two birds with one stone! With that thought, Sora knew that they were lucky to have met the Straw Hats before leaving.

Sora was suddenly jerked out of his thoughts by the low rumble of thunder in the distance. He quickly sat up and looked out his window.

In the distance, at the Children's Island, he saw dark thunderclouds forming in the sky. Lightning flashed, thunder resounded, and ferocious winds blew, stirring up the water. "A storm?" he said out loud to himself. He suddenly twitched in realization. "Oh, no! The raft!"

_A short time later…_

"Sora, dinner's ready! Come on down!" called the voice of Sora's mother. She got no response. "Sora?" she called again, not knowing that Sora was already gone.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_ Going Merry, Main deck_

Nami whacked away a creature that leapt at her head with her Clima-Tact, sending it flying into another group of black creatures and knocking them over. Twirling her weapon above her head, she then swung it in a full-circle sweeping motion around her, knocking away a few more that had managed to get up close to her. Quickly looking back, she saw one getting ready to pounce and promptly hit it with an underhand swing, scooping it up and sending it flying over the edge of the ship into the water.

But for every creature she seemingly got rid of, more came to take their place as they continued to spawn from the deck floor. Sometimes, she couldn't even hit them; right before a strike connected, they would flatten completely against the ground, becoming no thicker than a sheet of paper as the strike passed over them, popping back into their original solid forms once it was safe. Even worse, she couldn't use any of her Clima-Tact's special abilities to get rid of any significant numbers of the creatures, since they were coming at her too fast for her to prepare any moves.

Nami suddenly cried out in pain as she felt the claws of one of the creatures hit their mark on her left arm. In response, she turned and kicked the creature as hard as she could off the edge of the boat. Looking down at her arm, she saw two small but sizeable scratches running across it, which had already started bleeding slightly. Thankfully, they weren't deep, but she'd still need to bandage them up; that is, once these creatures were gone. Trying hard to shut the stinging, burning pain from her arm out of her mind, Nami quickly brought her Clima-Tact back into position as she turned back to the rest of the creatures advancing on her.

_Is there no end to these things?!_ thought Nami with frustration and apprehension as she continued fighting for her life.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Going Merry, Below deck, a few minutes earlier_

"… And then, naturally, I took out all thirty vicious giants all by myself!" boasted Usopp, telling yet another tall tale about his supposed adventures on the sea to Chopper, who, being his usual naïve self, listened with stars in his eyes. The two of them sat alone in the men's sleeping quarters, with the other three guys doing who-knew-what elsewhere. They had quickly grown bored after eating dinner, but weren't quite tired enough to sleep, so Usopp decided to pass the time by telling stories. Little did the two of them know of what was about to happen to them.

The two of them were suddenly interrupted by the sound of a loud thunderclap resounding outside the ship. "AAAAHHHH!!" screamed Chopper in fright as he zipped underneath the table in the room. "IT'S A STORM!!"

Usopp burst into laughter at the display, much to Chopper's annoyance. "Calm down, Chopper! It's just a thunderstorm! We deal with them all the time!" said the long-nose with a smile. Chopper relaxed a little, but for the most part remained tense. "By the way, what's that thing next to you?" continued Usopp, pointing slightly to Chopper's right.

Chopper quickly whipped his head in that direction to see a pitch-black… animal… of sorts forming out of the floor right next to him. "AAAAHHHH!!" he screamed again as he bolted out from under his hiding place and 'hid' behind one of the wooden support beams, once again failing miserably in concealing himself. "WHAT IS THAT?!"

Usopp also began sweating nervously at the sight of this black thing. It had already formed a head with two crooked antennae, two forelegs with claws and some semblance of a body, and was currently in the process of forming hind legs. It was also giving off a sinister aura that made Usopp and Chopper's fear grow. Once it had finished forming, it opened its glowing yellow eyes, staring at the two pirates.

At the sight of its eyes, Usopp and Chopper could only form one intelligent response:

"G…"

"G-g-gh…"

"Gh-gh-gho…"

"GHOST!!!!" they simultaneously screamed in fright as they bolted out of the room like bats out of hell.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Children's Island, Rear beach, Palm tree patch, same time_

"How the hell did I end up here?!"

Zoro was currently wandering amongst the strange palm trees with the yellow, purple and green leaves and muttering angrily, having left the ship a minute or two ago. He had just been napping on the main deck before being woken up by a strange feeling. His senses, heightened by his intense training and battle experience, had told him that something was off, that a dark, evil aura was slowly descending upon the island and the ship. Zoro had then leapt off the ship onto the dock and began walking towards the point where the dark, sinister feeling was strongest: the small cave obscured by some bushes next door to the waterfall. He wandered towards it like a moth to a flame, as if in a trance… but then his horrible sense of direction struck again, leading him to where he was now.

"How was I supposed to know which passageway I had to go through?! Now I gotta go all the way back to the other side!" he muttered in frustration, completely missing the fact that the strength of the aura of darkness was - to someone as skilled as him, anyway – like a big, bright-coloured arrow with the words 'In Here!' written on it in big letters over the cave, as well as the stone-grey double-doors that had appeared in front of the cave. He then began making his way back.

Or at least, he would have, but at that moment, he became aware of the stormy weather conditions. Looking around, he saw black clouds, strong winds, and frequent flashes of lightning, although no rain fell. _Huh,_ thought Zoro to himself. _This doesn't seem like any other storm we've ever encountered on the ocean. Why is there no rain falling?_

He was suddenly jerked out of his thoughts by the sudden appearance of eight puddles of blackness appearing from the sand all around him. Feeling the same sinister aura as that of the inside of the island from these puddles, Zoro quickly whipped out his Sandai Kitetsu and Yubashiri katanas and got into position, ready for anything. He watched as a number of strange creatures began forming out of the puddles, each opening a pair of glowing yellow eyes as they finished forming.

For a moment, they did nothing, though Zoro remained on guard. Then, suddenly, they crouched down and pounced, their claws out and ready to try and shred through Zoro.

Zoro, however, smirked as he quickly flipped his swords into an upside-down grip, then pointed the blades upwards and positioned them to resemble rhino horns. "**Nitoryu: Sai Kuru!**" he yelled as he quickly spun around, sending out a flurry of slashes in all directions as he rotated. The attack rapidly cleaved through each creature, causing them to instantly burst into black smoke.

Zoro watched as small, glowing, heart-shaped objects flew into the sky from each one as they disappeared. Here, the swordsman raised an eyebrow. Just what were these things?

However, he didn't have time to think about it as an even larger number of creatures quickly appeared all around him, all poised to attack. Zoro smirked again at the sight as he sheathed one of his hand swords, took out Kuina's old white-sheathed katana, placed it in his mouth, then took his third sword back out and got into position. "Heh. Looks like I'll get to have some fun tonight," he muttered softly.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Going Merry, Main deck, same time_

Robin leaned against the railing of the ship with her head propped on her left hand, watching the moonlight shine across the water. These islands truly were beautiful; she had managed to get a good look around this particular island throughout the day, and quite enjoyed it too. She certainly looked forward to visiting the main island the following day.

Still, she couldn't keep her mind off the conversation she had with Sora earlier that day, regarding the door inside the cave and the man who Sora supposedly saw the previous day. She knew she had seen something written somewhere in regards to the 'darkness' and the 'heart of this world' that the man in Sora's story had mentioned from a very old history book she had read a long time ago. What was written, exactly, she couldn't quite remember off the top of her head. However, something told her that she didn't want to know what the man's words truly entailed, and that if they were true, disaster might not be far behind.

She was broken from her thoughts as something on the large wooden platform on the left side of the beach caught her eye. It appeared to be some kind of animal, its black silhouette moving around in the moonlight. However, the curious thing about this animal was that something on it was glowing yellow, almost like a firefly. Growing curious, Robin crossed her arms and used her Hana Hana Fruit ability to sprout an eye from the railing of the platform to get a better look at the creature.

What she saw surprised her slightly. It was quite unlike any animal she had ever seen; in fact, it looked like an all-black, overgrown insect with only four limbs, a pair of rather crooked antennae, and glowing yellow eyes. Robin had certainly never seen or read about any creature like this. At the moment, the creature was currently scouting out its location on the platform, walking in a circle and wiggling its antennae around, as if searching for something.

Her curiosity growing, Robin decided to take a closer look in person. Dispersing the eye she created, she then made her way to the side of the ship and climbed down onto the dock. From there, she made her way over to the wooden walkways that led to the platform, passing by Luffy on the way, who happened to be sitting on the ram's head post at the helm of the ship. He didn't seem to notice her, though, as he seemed to be preoccupied with something in the sky.

Looking up herself, she noticed some black storm clouds rapidly forming over the island, spreading outward over the visible sky. Lightning then began flashing all over the sky, accompanied by the low rumble of thunder, and the wind began to pick up. However, Robin disregarded it in favour of doing what she had set out to do. After all, she and the rest of the crew had been through worse on the sea.

A bit of walking and climbing later, Robin stepped onto the wooden platform where the strange creature was. Upon her arrival, the creature perked its head up and turned to her, staring intently at the archaeologist with its glowing eyes.

Robin then stopped. Something wasn't right; for some reason, she was getting a bad feeling from this creature. The closer she stood, the worse it got, as if it were giving off an aura of evil and darkness. She couldn't quite place what it was, but she knew she had to get away from this creature.

She quickly turned to leave the area, but found her path blocked by a two new creatures exactly like the first one. Suddenly, she felt the dark aura hitting her several times over all at once from behind. Turning back around, she saw a dozen more creatures forming from the platform, surrounding her and staring at her intently.

Robin then noticed something in the sky out of the corner of her eye and quickly turned to look. She gasped slightly at what she saw.

It was a giant… hole in the sky, as if the sky itself had been torn open. Blue-black energy flowed around within it, with small arcs of lightning dancing around the edges, and its center glowed a dull orange colour that periodically dimmed and brightened.

Robin froze, an expression of fear appearing on her face at the sight of the hole in the sky. _It… it can't be!_ she thought fearfully._ It's the darkness!_ The creatures around her then attacked.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Going Merry, Rear deck, same time_

Sanji stood at the back of the ship with another cigarette in his mouth, while studying Nami's mikan trees intently as he tried to decide what dish he could serve for Nami and Robin the next day using the orange fruits. "Ah, Nami-san, Robin-chan, what dish could I possibly prepare that would be worthy of your wonderful presence?" wondered Sanji out loud, an amorous expression on his face. His cigarette smoke even seemed to form into heart-shapes. "Perhaps a cheesecake laced with mikan juice? Or perhaps mikan tarts? Oh, I could go on forever!"

As Sanji began fantasizing about Nami and Robin's reactions to his future culinary creations, a yellow-eyed black creature suddenly formed out of the deck behind him. The creature crouched down, bared its claws and pounced, aiming for his head. However, the black-clad chef simply dipped his head to the side, causing the creature to miss its target.

Six more creatures then appeared from the deck around him, crouching down in preparation for attack. One by one, they jumped at him with their claws ready for attack, but like with the first creature, he dodged each one of them. The most amazing thing about it was that Sanji was still in his own fantasy world as it happened. Finally, as if on a single mental cue, all seven creatures leapt at Sanji at once with their claws extended.

"Dammit, you shitty animals! Quit distracting me!" the cook yelled in aggravation as he quickly propped his hands on the ground and spun his legs in a circle above his head, hitting each creature with a powerful kick that sent them flying off the edge of the boat.

Getting back onto his feet, straightening up and dusting himself off, Sanji took a quick look around, only just then noticing the black clouds, lightning, and strong winds all around the Children's Island. "That's strange; when did this start?" wondered the cook out loud, completely ignoring the fact that he had been, for the most part, zoned out of reality as the storm had formed over the island.

Just then, another twelve creatures appeared around Sanji, crouching down and flexing their claws in preparation for attack. Sanji was unfazed, however, as he simply took his now-spent cigarette from his mouth and flicked it over the side of the boat. He then took out a fresh one, lit it, and took a single puff, breathing out the smoke. "Looks like I'll have to beat some manners into you," remarked the cook as the creatures lunged at him.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Going Merry, Helm, same time_

Luffy sat in his usual spot on the wooden ram's head at the helm of the ship, looking over the Children's island, just staring blankly ahead at nothing in particular. He began remembering back to all that had transpired that day: The Blitzball game, Riku's swordfight with Zoro, Usopp and Wakka's target contest, the prank on Zoro… Luffy grinned and laughed softly at that last one. Overall, it had been a great day, and they had made some new friends as well. He couldn't wait to see the main island tomorrow.

Just then, though, something up above grabbed his attention. Looking up, he saw black storm clouds rapidly gathering directly above the island, spreading outward across the sky. After a few minutes, strong winds began to pick up as lightning began flashing all around, accompanied by loud thunderclaps.

The Straw Hat captain then noticed something else happening in the sky. It appeared to be slowly tearing open, the tear slowly widening like a giant eyelid opening in the sky. All the while, Luffy stared at the strange occurrence, as if hypnotized by it. Had he looked down at the dock at all during that time, he might have noticed Robin walking to the wooden platform where Usopp and Wakka had their target practice contest. However, he soon grew bored of the hole in the sky, since it was taking too long to fully form for his liking.

Once he finally lowered his gaze, though, something on the beach just below and to the right of the helm of the ship caught his eye. Looking down, he saw a jet black puddle of something forming seemingly directly from the sand on the beach, shaping itself into a small black creature with glowing yellow eyes.

"Cool!!" exclaimed Luffy upon seeing it. He then jumped down from the ram's head post onto the sand and squatted down for a closer look. The creature tilted its head in curiosity at the sight of him. Luffy did the same. The creature then tilted its head in the opposite direction. Luffy again mimicked the gesture. "What are you?" he asked out loud. The creature gave no response. Luffy then grinned in comprehension as he pounded a fist into his hand. "I get it! You're a Mystery Creature!" Once again, the creature gave no response.

Luffy then began poking and prodding the creature's head with his index finger, causing it to flinch and attempt to swat his hand away with its forelegs. But that didn't deter the Straw Hat captain in the slightest as he continued to probe the creature. He then looked at the creature's crooked antennae, a curious expression forming on his face.

He grabbed one of its antennae between his thumb and forefinger and pulled on it until it straightened out. He then suddenly let go, letting it to snap back to its original crooked shape and causing the creature to flinch.

Enthralled, Luffy did it a few more times, much to the aggravation of the creature, although it was impossible to tell since the creature lacked any facial expression. Finally, as if losing patience, the creature swiped its claws at the Straw Hat captain's hand.

"Gah!" exclaimed Luffy in surprise as he quickly drew his hand back, just barely avoiding the creature's claws. His face then grew stern. "Bad Mystery Creature!" he scolded, waving his finger at it in the manner of a parent lecturing a misbehaving child.

Just then, however, another eight creatures formed out of the sand around Luffy, identical in appearance to the first creature. "Whoa! Cool!" exclaimed Luffy joyfully as he looked around and saw the new creatures. He then eagerly turned back to the first creature. "Are these guys friends of yours?!"

The only response he got was the creature leaping at his face with its claws poised to attack. "Gah!" exclaimed Luffy again as he quickly twisted his body and fell over onto his side to avoid the attack, the creature just barely sailing past his face.

Luffy quickly got up and stepped out of the circle that the creatures had formed around him. He then turned to face them, only just then noticing the dark, sinister aura they gave off as they crouched and bared their claws, ready to pounce at him. Face growing serious, the Straw Hat Captain began cracking his knuckles. "Looks like you're not friendly after all…" he said in a low voice.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Children's Island, Dock, current time_

Sora paddled as hard as he could through the choppy waters towards the Children's Island, trying hard not to get capsized. Part of him knew it was a bad idea to be canoeing through a storm like this, but he had to make sure that the raft was safe. Finally reaching the dock, Sora quickly jumped out and tied his boat to it on the opposite side of the dock from the Going Merry.

He then looked further along the dock and spotted two other canoes like his, immediately recognizing them. "Riku's boat! And Kairi's!"

**BOOM!!**

A loud thunderclap broke Sora's attention away from the boats, causing him to look skyward. "What's that?" he said in surprise, his eyes widening at what he saw.

There was a big circular hole in the sky, as if something had punched a hole in the very fabric of reality itself. Beyond the hole, all Sora could see was blue-black energy flowing around, with a dull orange glow at the center that constantly dimmed and brightened. Needless to say, it made Sora quite uneasy.

As if that wasn't enough, however, three strange puddles of blackness suddenly appeared on the dock a few feet from where Sora stood, quickly forming themselves into jet-black, insect-like creatures with glowing yellow eyes, all of which immediately focused on Sora. The spiky-haired boy could also feel an evil aura coming from these creatures. Forget uneasy; Sora was now _scared._

Just then, two people – one large and one small – came falling down onto the dock from the Straw Hats' ship, landing on their feet behind the creatures. Sora immediately recognized them as Usopp and Chopper. "Usopp! Chopper!" called out the spiky-haired boy, hoping they might be able to help him.

"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!! IT'S A GHOST!!" screamed Usopp and Chopper simultaneously as they ran as fast as they could across the beach to the other side of the island.

Despite the dire situation at hand, Sora couldn't help but sweatdrop at the sight. _So much for that,_ he thought grimly, his fear increasing as the creatures began to advance on him, their claws raised for attack.

He then shook his head. No… he couldn't lose his nerve in a situation like this. This wasn't a regular sparring session with Riku… no… this was a life-or-death situation where he was in very real danger. He was not training with a sparring partner… he was fighting actual opponents, and if he let fear overtake him, he could end up dead. Quickly steeling his resolve, Sora grabbed his wooden sword from his belt, it being the only weapon he had on hand, and got into a defensive stance, watching the creatures closely.

The creatures observed the spiky-haired boy for a moment, then lifted their claws and lunged at him, beginning the fight.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Children's Island, Rear beach_

Usopp and Chopper stood next to each other close to the tall wooden tower with the zipline, with their hands – or in Chopper's case, hooves - on their knees and panting slightly from their escape from the 'ghost' on board the ship. They had run all the way from the ship to the rear beach of the island, screaming in terror the entire way. If they had looked to their right as they ran past the area they had used as a Blitzball field, they would have noticed Riku standing there. However, they didn't.

"I think it's gone!" said Usopp as he quickly glanced behind them. He then gained a comically smug expression on his face as he placed his fists on his hips and threw out his chest. "Naturally, though, I could have easily taken it out myself! I have plenty of experience with ghosts! Why, one time, I banished a ghost fifteen times the size of that one from an old mansion!" he bragged, despite the fact that he had been running and screaming in terror right alongside Chopper just a few seconds ago.

Gullible as ever, though, Chopper was enthralled by Usopp's words. "Wow, really?! That's amazing!" gushed the small bipedal reindeer with stars in his eyes.

Before either of them could say anymore, however, twelve more black creatures popped up close to them, surrounding them.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!!! MORE GHOSTS!!!"" the two pirates screamed simultaneously as they grabbed and held onto each other for dear life.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Children's Island, Dock_

So far, Sora was having very little luck with these creatures. His wooden sword did barely anything to hurt them, and sometimes he couldn't even hit them at all; whenever he swung at them, they would somehow flatten their bodies against the dock floor, barely dodging the strike. They would then pop back up and attempt to attack Sora again with their claws.

He eventually managed to get rid of them all by sidestepping their lunges and in turn causing them to fall into the water, since they didn't seem to be able to swim. Once the small battle was over, Sora put his weapon back onto his belt and began running along the dock, intent on continuing his original mission of saving the raft.

However, before he got very far, he once again felt the dark, evil aura of those creatures, this time from behind. Glancing back, Sora noticed four more black creatures forming out of the dock behind him.

Not taking any chances this time, the spiky-haired boy increased his pace, hoping to outrun these things. He wanted to avoid engaging these creatures in battle whenever possible. He only took on those first three because he had been cornered against the end of the dock and thus had no choice. This time, however, he could escape onto the island.

Looking to his right as he neared the beach, he suddenly spotted Luffy fighting off a large number of those black creatures. There had to be at least three dozen surrounding him. However, despite the huge disadvantage in numbers, Luffy seemed to be doing much better than Sora; a single punch from the Straw Hat captain would either disperse its target or send it flying a good distance away. Sora then watched as Luffy jumped onto the rock ledge nearby.

"**Gomu Gomu no…**" began Luffy as he cocked both of his fists back. "**Gatling Gun!**"

He then let loose a HUGE barrage of rapid-fire stretching punches onto the large group of creatures in front of him. Whichever creatures weren't immediately dispersed by the sheer power of Luffy's punches were sent flying twenty feet away into the ocean. Not a single creature was spared as he continued his onslaught. Once he finished the attack, the beach was empty; not a single black creature remained.

"Hee hee!" Luffy chuckled triumphantly with a large grin as he put his hands on his hips, looking over his handiwork.

He then looked to his right to see Sora gawking at him, his jaw having practically dropped to the ground in amazement. "Oh, Sora! Hi! What's up?" Luffy greeted cheerfully with a wave, acting as if he had not just been fighting for his life.

Sora didn't respond; he merely kept gaping in shock at Luffy's strength and fighting ability. "So many creatures… taken out all at once… so strong…" squeaked Sora in amazement. Was THIS the kind of strength Zoro was talking about that they would encounter on the Grand Line?

However, Sora was quickly broken out of his stupor as he noticed Luffy's face go serious. The rubberman then began rearing his fist back again… this time aiming in SORA'S direction! "Luffy, no, wait…!"

"**Gomu Gomu no Pistol!**" shouted Luffy as he swung his fist forward, his arm stretching out as his punch rapidly approached Sora. Not having time to think, Sora braced his arms over his head and shut his eyes tight, bracing for impact.

However, the impact never came. Gingerly opening his eyes, Sora noticed Luffy's arm extending past his head, barely an inch away from touching it. Following it with his eyes, he then noticed the four black creatures he had been running from… squashed up on top of each other against the hull of the Going Merry under Luffy's fist and rapidly dissolving.

Sora breathed out a huge sigh of relief as Luffy retracted his arm. "Thanks, Luffy. You saved my butt there," said the spiky-haired boy with a grateful smile.

"Shishishi! Don't mention it!" replied Luffy, grinning proudly.

"So, what's up? Why are you here?" he asked once Sora had walked over to stand across from him.

"I came over when I saw the storm," answered Sora. "I didn't want our raft to get swept away or broken up by it. I didn't expect Riku and Kairi to be here too, though."

"Eh? Riku and Kairi are here too?"

"Yeah, I saw their boats at the dock when I arrived. Are you saying you didn't see them?" asked Sora with a questioning look on his face. Luffy simply shook his head no.

"Huh, weird…" mused Sora as he began looking over the island for any sign of his two best friends. He looked to the secret cave entrance, then the waterfall, the shack, the island platform… he stopped and did a double-take at the island platform. Riku was there!

"There he is! There's Riku!" exclaimed Sora, bolting off towards the island platform. _But then… where's Kairi?_

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Children's Island, Island Platform_

Riku stood on the island platform, facing the ocean. Tonight was the night. The door to this world had finally opened! And with the door open, he, Sora, and Kairi could finally go visit other worlds!

Since he had lost to Zoro earlier that day, he wouldn't be able to travel the Grand Line with the Straw Hat Pirates on their ship, and he had accepted the fact that their raft, as it currently was, wouldn't last long on the ocean. But that was only within _this_ world. With the door to this world having opened, they could go to _countless_ other worlds. He didn't know what kind of strength he would face should the need to fight ever arise, but that was the risk that came with adventure. And after all, the only way he could become stronger was to be forced to fight beyond his limits, something he knew couldn't happen if he remained on the islands. He couldn't let fear stop him!

With that thought in mind, Riku continued to watch the ocean as he awaited Sora's arrival.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Going Merry, Main deck_

Nami had so far managed to keep from being overwhelmed by the creatures by striking or flinging the majority of them off the side of the ship as she fought. She had even managed to make a small number of them disperse with a number of hard hits (why they dispersed into the air instead of dropping dead or unconscious, Nami had no idea), causing small, glowing, heart-shaped objects to fly into the sky for some reason as they disappeared. However, it did little to halt the continuing onslaught of black creatures attacking her from every direction. She had even gotten a few more scratches on her from the claws of the odd creatures she hadn't hit or dodged quickly enough.

Earlier on, she had seen Usopp and Chopper running up onto the main deck looking scared out of their minds. She wanted to ask for their help, but by the time she had raised her hand to get their attention, they had already jumped off the side of the boat and began running for their lives, much to her annoyance and frustration.

Seeing no way of defeating such a large number of opponents by herself, Nami quickly moved to clear a path through the creatures to the side of the ship in order to jump off and flee. However, before she could attack any of them… they stopped. None of them approached her anymore; they just stood there, staring at her.

"Huh? What's going on?" wondered the navigator out loud.

Then, suddenly, the creatures disappeared as black holes opened up directly underneath them and swallowed them up. The holes themselves then closed up and disappeared instantly.

Nami looked around confusedly, wondering what had just happened. Why did the creatures just stop and disappear all of a sudden? However, she decided not to question her good fortune. She then moved to tell the others about what had just happened.

She nearly fell forward, however, as she tried to take a step forward, bur found that she couldn't get her feet off the ground. It felt like they were stuck to something. She then looked down… and gasped fearfully at what she saw.

A vortex of some sort that swirled with black and dark purple energy was forming directly beneath her feet. Pure black tendrils latched onto her feet and ankles from out of it, preventing her from fleeing. Panicking, she thrashed her feet and legs around as much as she could to try and get loose, but the tendrils did not budge. Trails of black vapour began to rise from the vortex as the tendrils continued to wrap around Nami, snaking up her legs to her torso and eventually over her shoulders.

At that point, Nami felt herself being pulled down into the dark vortex underneath her feet. " HELP!! SOMEBODY!!" she screamed, hoping one of the rest of the crew would hear. She reached out an arm, as if hoping to grab and hold onto something that could keep her from being sucked under, but grasped only thin air. "LUFFY! ZORO! SANJI-KUN! ROBIN! ANYBODY!! HEL…!!"

Her cries for help were cut off as she was fully engulfed by the vortex, her outstretched hand disappearing beneath the surface of the darkness.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Children's Island, Rear beach_

Zoro slashed through a black creature that came leaping at his head with his right hand sword, dispersing it instantly. He then swept his blade out to the right, taking out four more creatures that came jumping in from the right. He then turned to his left, sweeping his left hand sword downward and wiping out two more creatures. Seeing a group of twelve creatures coming at him from the front, Zoro crouched down and crossed his arms in front of him, pointing his katana blades upward. "**Oni Giri!**" he shouted as he swiftly dashed through the oncoming swarm, sending out three simultaneous slashes with his swords and cutting through each creature, dispersing them.

Zoro frowned as he turned around to face the rest of the creatures behind him. These creatures weren't offering any kind of challenge at all! He could easily bring them down with a single strike, they weren't coordinated at all, and their aura of darkness was a big giveaway to their locations, making it impossible for them to sneak up on him. The only advantage they had was numbers, given that they kept spawning out of the sand like there was no tomorrow, but even that didn't help them much. Needless to say, Zoro was growing somewhat annoyed.

Just then, though, a huge swarm of creatures, numbering at least 40, instantly spawned all around the swordsman, leaping up all at once to dogpile him. Unfazed, Zoro simply smirked as he spread his arms out and pointed his arm swords up, tilting his right hand sword slightly outward to create some semblance of a dragon's body with his arms. The creatures then dogpiled the swordsman, not a single part of him visible beneath the pile of black bodies.

"**Santoryu…**" boomed Zoro's voice from beneath the pile. "**Tatsu Maki!!**"

A whirlwind suddenly burst forth from beneath the pile of black creatures, sending them flying in all directions as Zoro broke free from the dogpile with a powerful spinning attack from all three of his swords. The creatures that weren't instantly destroyed by the attack went flying through the air and landed hard on the ground below them, dispersing from the impact. Seeing a few left around him, Zoro got into position to engage them.

However, at that moment, whatever creatures hadn't been caught in the whirlwind attack suddenly halted, stopping where they were. Not a single one attacked any further; they simply stood in place, staring at the swordsman. Here, Zoro raised an eyebrow. What were they doing _now?_

His question was answered when the creatures were suddenly sucked into black portals that opened up beneath them, the portals themselves disappearing once the creatures were gone.

Now Zoro was truly confused as he looked around scratching his head. Just what the hell was going on around here? "Ah well, doesn't matter," said the swordsman. "I'll just get back to the…"

He was suddenly cut short as he noticed that he could no longer move his feet, as if they had been belted to the ground. Looking down, he saw a vortex of some sort beneath his feet that swirled with black and dark purple energy. Black tendrils from within the said vortex latched onto his feet and were quickly slithering up his legs. Zoro tried to move them, but they were too heavily restrained at that point. He tried slashing at them with his swords, but only succeeded in keeping other tendrils from latching onto him; if he tried to get the ones that already restrained him, he would end up injuring himself. And he sure as hell wasn't going to try and chop his own legs off again! Besides, even if he did, he likely wouldn't be able to escape long enough to avoid these things entirely, which would make losing his legs entirely pointless.

Realizing there was no way out, Zoro calmly closed his eyes and sheathed his three swords, the said swords being quickly overtaken by the tendrils of darkness. He then crossed his arms over his chest as he felt himself being pulled down into the vortex.

Soon, Zoro was gone.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Children's Island, Rear Beach, Zipline tower area_

Usopp and Chopper stood back-to-back as they watched the black creatures surrounding them. After their little 'episode' upon seeing these things for the first time, they had eventually settled back down after discovering that these creatures were not ghosts after all. They had realized this after one of the creatures had managed to jump onto Usopp's back while they were going through their second terrified frenzy, and seeing that, Chopper quickly snapped out of it and shifted into Heavy Point, grabbing the creature with his then-massive hand and flinging it a good distance away. The two of them now faced the large and still-growing group of black creatures, trying to figure out how to deal with these things. Chopper had even consumed a Rumble Ball to even out the odds a little more.

"**Usopp Noise!**" shouted Usopp as he whipped out a chalkboard and scratched his fingernails across it, creating a loud, horrible noise.

"AAAHHH!!" screamed Chopper as he quickly clapped his hands over his ears. However, the creatures didn't react at all. They merely continued advancing toward the two pirates.

"AAH!! It's not working!" cried Usopp with a comically terrified expression. He then put the chalkboard away and took out a rotten egg, placing it in his slingshot and stretching it back. "**Hissatsu: Tamago Boshi!**" shouted the sniper as he fired, hitting a random creature in the face. The creature flinched at the impact, but continued its approach, unaffected by the stench of the egg. Chopper, however, having the most sensitive nose of the entire crew, immediately clamped his hands over said nose to block out the smell.

"Id's dot workig, Usobb! Try subthig else!" said Chopper in a thick voice as he held his nose.

"Alright then, I'll have to take this up a notch!" said Usopp with a determined expression as he reached into his bag again. "**Hissatsu: Kemuri Boshi!**" he shouted as he fired the projectile onto the ground, releasing a cloud of smoke that covered the entire area.

"Now, Chopper! Run!" called out the sniper as he grabbed Chopper's arm and ran through a gap in the ranks of the creatures. A few of them leapt towards them to attack, but Chopper quickly dispatched them by shifting into Horn Point and bucking them away with his now-large and _very_ sharp antlers.

After a bit of running, the two of them stood with their backs facing the rock face of the island. They watched in slight horror as the smokescreen was quickly dispersed by the strong winds of the storm, revealing the group of creatures advancing on them again, their creepy glowing eyes fixated on them as they raised their claws to attack. They were trapped.

"D-don't w-worry, Ch-Chopper," Usopp stuttered as he swallowed hard. "W-w-we can st-till b-beat these g-guys if w-w-we w-work t-together." He swallowed again. "Are you with me?"

"I'm with you, Usopp!" cried Chopper as anime tears flowed down from his eyes.

Usopp nodded, then raised his slingshot into the air in a declaratory pose as he took on a determined expression.

"ATTENTION UNIDENTIFIABLE CREATURES!!" he shouted with bravado. "WE ARE THE GREAT CAPTAIN USOPP AND PIRATE DOCTOR CHOPPER OF THE STRAW HAT PIRATE CREW, AND WE WON'T GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT!! SO WHOEVER WISHES NOT TO RECEIVE A BEATING, LEAVE NOW AND SAVE YOURSELVES!!"

"YEAH!!" shouted Chopper in agreement.

However impressive that declaration was, though, it was thoroughly diminished by the fact that Usopp's knees continued to shake as he shouted.

At that moment, however, the creatures stopped their advance, much to the surprise of Chopper and Usopp (although Usopp was also relieved). Nothing happened; the creatures just stood there. Then, suddenly, portals of blackness opened up directly beneath the creatures, swallowing them and closing again. The area was now completely empty of black creatures.

"What do you know, they actually listened…" said Chopper in shock, having switched back into Brain Point.

"Yeah…" agreed Usopp, a slight bit of shock on his own face. He then smirked as he threw out his chest. "Haha! Of course it worked! I am a conqueror of the seas! My name strikes fear into the hearts of even the bravest and mightiest of pirates! Crying children are silenced when they hear it! Not a soul upon this ocean doesn't know the name of the Great Captain Usopp!"

"WHOOAAAA!! You're so cool!! Sugei! Sugei!" cheered Chopper with starry eyes upon hearing Usopp's speech, even lightly dancing on the spot as he gushed over the liar.

"Thank you, thank you!" said Usopp with a proud expression, waving his hand towards the bipedal reindeer as if brushing off his cheers. "Now then, let's get back to the…"

Just then, he found that he couldn't walk. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get his feet off the ground. "Uh, Chopper? This might sound crazy, but… am I stuck to the ground?"

"AAAAAAHHH!!" screamed the reindeer as he pointed a shaking hoof at Usopp's feet.

"What?" Usopp looked down and saw… "AAAAAHHHHH!!"

A vortex made of what looked like black and dark purple energy swirled directly beneath Usopp's feet, with tendrils of pure blackness reaching up from it and latching onto his legs and feet, quickly moving to his torso as well. "GET 'EM OFF!! GET 'EM OFF!!" Usopp screamed frantically as he clawed at the tentacles, although it did little to deter them.

"OH NO!! I'M STUCK TOO!!" screamed Chopper as black tentacles ensnared him from another vortex that had formed beneath his own feet. He thrashed around, desperately trying to escape the black tendrils, but yielded little success. He even tried morphing into his other Rumble Ball forms, but still couldn't escape.

"YAAAAAAAHHH!! SOMEONE HELP US!!" screamed Usopp as he too made a desperate attempt to escape the vortex, although he had no more success in doing so than Chopper. He tried reaching into his bag for something, ANYTHING, that could help them, but found the bag to be completely enveloped by the black tentacles.

Just then, the two pirates felt themselves being pulled downward into their respective vortexes.

"AAAAHHH!! WE'RE GONNA DIE!!" screamed Chopper as he continued thrashing around, now down to his waist in the vortex.

"HELP! HELP! SOMEBODY!! HAAAAALLLLLLP!!" screamed Usopp as he too thrashed about, himself up to his stomach.

Soon, however, their screams for help abruptly stopped, and Usopp and Chopper were gone.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Children's Island, Wooden platform_

A group of four creatures stood in front of Robin, baring their claws as they readied themselves to attack. Robin simply stood calmly in front of them, crossing her arms and closing her eyes as she said "**Cuatro Fleurs!**" Just then, four arms instantly blossomed into existence from the platform, one behind each creature. The arms then grabbed the creatures by the necks and flung them off the edge of the platform.

This was the same routine Robin used on each creature of darkness that sprouted into existence and attacked her: Creature appeared, Robin tossed said creature off the side of the platform with her Devil Fruit ability. These creatures didn't seem to have any strategy to their attacks; they just appeared and attacked, and thus Robin required no strategy herself to dispatch them. They seemed to operate solely on instinct, though why their instinct was to attack her, Robin didn't know. She didn't have time to ponder it, though, since the creatures kept coming faster and faster, making it more and more difficult to dispatch them.

Then suddenly, they stopped. No more creatures popped into existence, and the ones already there halted their approach. They didn't do anything else; they just remained stationary, all the while staring at Robin with their glowing yellow stares.

The archaeologist looked around at the creatures with a questioning gaze. What were they doing? Just a moment ago, they had been attacking her from all directions from the moment they came into existence, and now they had halted their attack as one. What happened or was happening to make them stop? Not taking any chances, Robin crossed her arms again and sprouted arms behind each creature on the platform, ready to grab them at a moment's notice.

This proved to be unnecessary, however, since at that moment, a number of black portals opened up directly beneath each creature, quickly swallowing them up and disappearing.

Seeing this, Robin dispelled the extra arms, but remained on guard. If what the hooded man Sora told her about had said about the world being "tied to the darkness" was true, then the danger hadn't passed yet. If anything, it had only just begun.

It was at that moment that she felt something slithering up her legs. She then looked down… and her eyes widened with slight fear at what she saw.

A vortex of some kind, made up of black and dark purple energy, had formed directly beneath her feet, though for reasons unknown, she still felt as if she were standing on solid ground. As if that were not enough reason for concern, however, black tendrils of darkness had begun slithering out of the vortex and grabbing Robin's feet and legs, quickly moving to ensnare her waist, torso, and shoulders as well.

At that moment, Robin felt herself being pulled downward into the vortex. Not taking any chances, she quickly crossed her thankfully unrestrained arms and said "**Cinco Fleur!**" Five arms quickly sprouted out of the rock wall closest to her to form a vine, which she quickly took hold of with both of her regular hands to prevent herself from being dragged any further into the vortex.

It quickly proved to be futile, however, as the tendrils began pulling harder and harder, forcing Robin to strain even more to prevent herself from being pulled down. Eventually, the strain became too much, causing the arm vine to disperse. Now nothing prevented Robin from being pulled in.

"Oh dear…" was all she said before disappearing beneath the surface of the vortex.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Going Merry, Rear deck_

A trio of black creatures leapt at Sanji's head with their claws poised, ready to shred through the cook, but were hit with a powerful sweeping kick from said cook that sent them flying into a group of five other black creatures, dispersing them instantly. Sanji then planted one hand on the ground and continued moving his leg in the direction of the previous kick, completing a full 360-degree rotation that sent a large number of creatures off the side of the ship. He then stood up straight and dusted himself off, seemingly oblivious to the creature leaping at his head from behind. However, before it could make contact, Sanji quickly bent over backwards, placed his hands on the deck, swept his right leg up in an arc and slammed the creature square in the face with his foot, dispersing it instantly.

Sanji then got back onto his feet and took a puff of his cigarette, watching the remaining creatures carefully. The creatures now stood stock still, with no others popping into existence. This caused Sanji to raise an eyebrow in confusion and suspicion; why did they stop all of a sudden? Just a second ago, they had all been attacking and leaping at him as if he were some kind of tasty prey, and now they had halted their approach all as one. Just what the hell was going on?

For that matter, just what the hell were these things? They were completely unlike any animals he had ever encountered; he had yet to see another pitch-black animal with crooked antennae that had perpetually glowing eyes. Not to mention whenever he dealt them a hard enough blow, they burst into black smoke and a glowing, heart-shaped object would fly straight up into the sky as they did so, rather than simply dropping dead or unconscious. Whatever they were, they certainly weren't natural.

Suddenly, black portals opened up beneath the creatures, swallowing them and closing again, which confused Sanji even further. What the hell was happening _now?_

"HELP!! SOMEBODY!!"

Sanji was jarred from his thoughts by the sound of Nami crying out for help. From the sound of it, she was currently on the main deck. "Nami-san!" he shouted, concern appearing on his face as he moved to bolt out to where the navigator was. However, he quickly found that he couldn't get his feet off the ground. He looked down to see a vortex of some kind forming beneath his feet, with black tentacles sprouting up from it and trapping his legs.

"Dammit!" cursed the chef as he attempted to escape by thrashing his legs around. He almost managed to get one leg free, but a large number of tentacles quickly overtook it before he could. "Dammit, you shitty tentacles! Nami-san is in trouble! You dare keep a man from helping a beautiful lady in need?!" Even the strong legs of the second master of the Red Leg Style couldn't break free. Nevertheless, Sanji continued to try and wrench his way out their grip, even as the tendrils made their way over his shoulders.

At that moment, Sanji felt himself being pulled down into the vortex. "Shit!" he cursed. He then sighed in defeat and stopped trying to break free, realizing it was futile. Whatever this vortex with tentacles was, it clearly wasn't trying to kill him; otherwise, the tentacles would have crushed him by now. Rather, it appeared to have been trying to transport him somewhere else. Where 'somewhere else' was, Sanji had no idea, but he wouldn't let any degree of distance separate him from Nami-san and Robin-chan!

He then cupped his hands around his mouth, an expression of lament appearing on his face. "Nami-swan!" he called out, hoping she might hear. "Worry not! I shall come for you! Just wait for me!"

With that, Sanji disappeared beneath the surface of the vortex.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Children's Island, Island platform_

Sora dashed across the wooden bridge towards Riku's current location. He was standing still, facing the water with his back to the two of them. "Riku!" called out Sora as he ran. However, Riku didn't respond.

"Where's Kairi? I thought she was with you!" said Sora as he made it onto the island.

"The door has opened…" said Riku softly, his back still turned.

"What?" asked Sora in confusion.

"The door has opened, Sora!" Riku repeated, turning around. However, his voice didn't sound fearful, but rather… excited. "Now we can go to the outside world!"

"What are you talking about?! We've gotta find Kairi!" Sora responded frantically.

"Kairi's coming with us!" Riku shot back immediately, the forceful tone startling Sora.

Riku then looked up to face the giant hole in the sky. "Once we step through, we might not be able to come back," the silver-haired boy continued. "We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back." He paused, as if contemplating something, but then began speaking again.

"But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us!" continued Riku, determination rising in his voice as he spoke. "I'm not afraid of the darkness!"

He then reached out a hand to Sora, beckoning him.

"Riku…" began Sora in a worried tone, not liking what seemed to have come over his best friend. He wasn't sure why, but Riku's demeanor made him uneasy.

Just then, however, a vortex of darkness opened directly beneath Riku's feet, black tendrils quickly snaking out to engulf him. The silver-haired boy appeared to pay it no mind, though, as he continued to reach out to Sora.

Sora quickly ran forward to try and help him, but just before he could reach his friend, he felt himself getting snared by the ankles, causing him to stumble. However, he managed to keep his balance. Looking down, he saw another vortex just below his own feet, with tendrils of darkness slithering out to engulf him as well.

Sora quickly reached out to grab Riku's hand, but found that he was just barely out of reach. Sora strained as hard as he could against the tentacles to try and reach his best friend, whose hand was barely an inch away, but he was unable to cross the distance between them, no matter how hard he tried.

Black vapour began pouring out of the vortexes, and Sora suddenly felt the sensation of being pulled down into the vortex. Looking over, he saw the same thing happening to Riku. He then made one last valiant effort to grab his hand, but once again, he came up short.

"Sora! Riku!" came Luffy's voice from behind. The spiky-haired boy quickly turned his head to see the Straw Hat captain running toward him. "Luffy!" he exclaimed.

_Two minutes earlier…_

Luffy watched Sora bolt off towards the island platform, where Riku was standing. "Huh? What's Riku doing there?" wondered the Straw Hat captain aloud with a confused frown. "Ah well, might as well check it out!" he continued with a grin as he began running to follow Sora.

He was halfway across the wooden bridge when he suddenly slowed down. He thought he'd heard a scream from the Going Merry. _Was that Nami? _wondered Luffy. Nah, must have been the wind. It was blowing quite hard, after all. Still, a small part of him wondered if it was, in fact, his navigator he heard, not the wind, and if she was in trouble. Maybe he should head back and help…

That thought was quickly shoved to the side as he saw Sora and Riku being entangled by some weird black tentacles that came up from some weird vortexes beneath their feet. "Sora! Riku!" shouted Luffy as he dashed forward to help.

Unknown to the Straw Hat captain, at that moment, a vortex had just opened beneath his feet as well, but when he ran to help Sora and Riku, he had inadvertently escaped the black tendrils that came out to grab him. Finding nothing to grab, the tendrils retracted back into the vortex, and the vortex itself disappeared.

_Present time_

"Luffy! No! Stay back!" Sora yelled as the black vapour from the vortexes began rushing out faster and faster and the tentacles almost fully engulfed him. He didn't want Luffy to get trapped as well. However, he was too late as Luffy quickly ran up to him and grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling hard to get him free of the tentacles. However, even Luffy's great strength wasn't enough against them.

Sora then felt himself getting pulled down into the vortex. "Luffy! Run!" Sora cried. "Get out of here before you get sucked in too!"

"No way!" Luffy yelled, still trying to free Sora. "I'm not just gonna abandon a friend!"

Sora was slightly surprised that Luffy already considered him a friend worth saving, considering they had only known each other for a day. He didn't have time to think about it, though, as he looked back over to Riku. He was also being pulled down into the vortex beneath his feet, but he put up no resistance as he continued to reach his hand out to Sora, although he seemed slightly surprised at Luffy's presence.

Luffy then stretched his arm over to Riku in an attempt to grab him and pull him loose, but as it approached, Riku knocked it away with his other hand. Luffy wore a look of surprise as his arm retracted.

"Don't try to stop us, Luffy!" said Riku. "This is our chance to travel to other worlds! With this, we aren't just limited to the Grand Line! Anything is possible if we go now!" With that, he held out his right hand to Sora once more. "The darkness is nothing to be feared, Sora…" he said softly.

Sora made one last valiant effort to reach his hand out to Riku's… but once again came up short, and the three of them were dragged down into the darkness.

--

Sora and Luffy fell… and fell… down, down, down into infinite blackness. The two of them could not see, hear, or feel a thing; it was as if they were trapped underwater in complete darkness. There was no sensation of rushing air, or even of falling. There was nothing. Only infinite nothingness. An infinite abyss of darkness.

FLASH!

Sora and Luffy's eyes were hit with a sudden burst of bright light, which for some reason had centered around Sora's right hand. Sora suddenly felt his fingers grasp something solid in the middle of the light, which continued to shine. The light then began shining brighter and brighter until it was almost blinding, forcing Sora and Luffy to shield their eyes.

A moment later, the two companions once again felt solid ground under their feet. The suddenness of it caused them both to stumble, but they managed to keep their balance. Opening their eyes, they found themselves standing in the exact same spot on the island they had been earlier when they had been dragged into the vortex, with the storm still going strong all around them. Riku, however, was gone.

"Huh? What just happened?" asked Luffy, holding his hat on his head with one hand while looking around confusedly.

"I dunno…" replied Sora softly, also looking around in confusion. At that moment, he realized he was still gripping that object that had appeared in his hand in the blackness. He then quickly looked down, and his eyes widened in surprise.

It was… a giant _key_. It had a cylindrical silver shaft that ran almost twice as long as his arm, with teeth at the end that appeared to be the outline of a crown, and a square yellow guard that looped around the leather-gripped handle his hand currently grasped. Sora also noticed a keychain hanging from the base of the hilt with a small metal charm that consisted of three concentric circles, one bigger than the other two, almost resembling a mouse's head. Sora could only stare in wonder at the strange, yet beautiful, object in his hand as he lifted it up to his eye level. With the way it was designed, he couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a key or a sword.

"WHOOAAA!!" Sora heard Luffy exclaim. "That's so COOL!! What is it?! What is it?!" Luffy ranted with stars in his eyes as he ran over to get a closer look.

"I'm not sure…" replied Sora distantly, still entranced by the object in his hand. Suddenly, a strange voice began speaking inside Sora's head, seemingly coming from all directions.

_Keyblade… _

_Keyblade… _

The word repeated itself over and over inside his head. "A… Keyblade?" he asked out loud.

"Oh? That's what it's called? Cool!" exclaimed Luffy joyfully. "Lemme see! Lemme see!" With that, he snatched the so-called Keyblade out of Sora's hand and looked at it closely with starry eyes.

"Hey, come on, Luffy! I had it first!" Sora protested, trying to reach over and claim it back. He didn't know why, but he felt like he needed this strange weapon. He felt as if he were connected to it somehow, and having it out of his hands just didn't feel right.

However, the spiky-haired boy's protests proved to be unnecessary as the Keyblade flashed brightly out of existence from Luffy's hands, reappearing with another bright flash of light in Sora's right hand the next instant, startling him slightly. Just what the heck was this thing?!

"Aw! No fair!" complained Luffy as he pouted slightly, causing Sora to sweatdrop.

Sora suddenly stiffened as he realized something. "Kairi!" he cried, remembering that his other best friend had also come to the island. Sora turned back to the main area of the Children's Island and frantically moved his eyes all over it, looking for some sign of her. His eyes stopped where the entrance to the secret cave was supposed to be. There was a strange, large, arching grey object standing in front of it for some reason. When did _that_ get there?

Not seeing any sign of Kairi at any other spot on the island, Sora quickly bolted off towards the cave entrance, moving straight past Luffy.

"Whoa, whoa! Sora!" exclaimed the Straw Hat captain as he just barely sidestepped the spiky-haired boy's approach, almost losing his balance in the process. "Where are you going? Hey, wait for me!" he called out as he began running to follow Sora once again.

As Sora ran across the wooden bridge, five black creatures popped up directly in his path. "Get out of my way!" he yelled. As if on instinct, he gripped the Keyblade tighter, wound up and swung it at the creatures in a horizontal arc. To Sora's surprise, as soon as the mysterious weapon struck one of the creatures, the creature instantly dispersed, soon followed by the four others as Sora completed his swing.

Sora stared in wonder at the Keyblade once again. Earlier, when he had been fighting these creatures with his wooden sword, he could barely even faze them, no matter how many times or how hard he hit them. And yet now, with a single strike from this strange new weapon, he had taken out five at once! How did that happen? Was there some kind of connection between these creatures and this weapon?

He quickly shook his head to clear those thoughts away. He'd have to think about it later; Kairi came first!

With that, he took off running towards the secret cave entrance once again. Creatures would often pop up in his path at random intervals like the previous five, but Sora simply mowed through them with his new weapon. Whichever creatures managed to dodge his strikes by flattening against the ground, Sora ignored as he continued running towards his destination, and Luffy dispatched them with his fists as he brought up the rear.

Finally, Sora reached the cave entrance. In front of it stood a set of strange, purple-grey, stone double-doors with strange, ornate, interweaving designs all over them. The spiky-haired boy recognized it as one of the doorways he had seen in that strange dream he'd had the day before. He was about to reach out to grab one of the handles, but suddenly, the Keyblade flashed brightly, and the doors swung open by themselves. Sora blinked at this strange occurrence, but quickly shook his head and bolted inside to where the cave was, the doors swinging shut behind him.

"Sora!" called Luffy, running towards the doors as they closed. The Straw Hat captain ran as fast as he could in the hopes of sliding inside before they closed completely, but just before he got there, they shut with a deep thud. "Oi! Open up!" he commanded indignantly, but nothing happened.

Growing impatient, Luffy grabbed one of the handles and pulled. The door didn't budge. He pulled harder. It still didn't budge. Growing slightly frustrated, he grabbed the second handle. Propping his right foot on the doorframe, he pulled as hard as he could, pushing off the doorframe with his foot for more leverage, but the doors still refused to budge.

"Oi! Let me in! My friend is in there! Oi!" ranted the Straw Hat captain with a comically angry expression as he quickly propped his other foot on the other side of the doorframe and continued to yank as hard as he could. Despite his best efforts, however, the doors still did not yield, frustrating Luffy more and more.

At one point, after a particularly powerful yank, one of his hands slipped, quickly followed by the other one due to the force of his legs. "Wah!!" cried Luffy in surprise as he went flying a short distance away, landing hard on his back.

The Straw Hat captain gritted his teeth in frustration. Why wouldn't these doors open?! Sora was inside! He needed to get in there!

At that moment, as he lay on his back, a black creature poked its head into his field of vision, watching him carefully with its glowing stare. Soon, more creatures followed suit, their heads all in a circle from Luffy's point of view. "Huh?" was his response as he turned his head to the side… only to see over a hundred black creatures surrounding him, all baring their claws in preparation for attack. As one, the creatures crouched, then lunged at him.

"WAAAHHH!!!" screamed the Straw Hat captain with a comically terrified expression as they proceeded to dogpile him. "GET THEM OFF MEEEE!!!" he screamed as he rolled around on the ground, desperately trying to claw the creatures off of him. More and more creatures continued to leap onto him, creating a pile and pinning Luffy down even further until he was completely covered.

"**GOMU GOMU NO GATLING GUN!!**" came the shout of the Straw Hat captain from beneath the pile as it suddenly exploded outward under a huge barrage of rapid-fire punches. Dozens of creatures went flying in all directions, bursting into black smoke as Luffy continued punching them.

A few seconds later, out of the hundred creatures that had initially surrounded him, only about a dozen remained, but many more began spawning all around him. Seeing this, Luffy got to his feet and began cracking his knuckles in preparation. The creatures attacked, and the battle was on once again.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Inside the secret cave_

Sora ran through the tunnel, coming out into the cave itself. He then stopped; standing directly ahead of him, facing away from him toward the wooden door, was Kairi.

"Kairi!" Sora exclaimed, worry lacing his voice.

Kairi slowly turned around to face Sora. However, she didn't look at all like her usual cheerful self; rather, she looked ill. "Sora…" she said slowly, as if she were struggling to speak.

She then took a slow step towards Sora, slowly and pleadingly reaching out her hand to him, looking as if she were in need of his help.

Before Sora could move to help, though, a glowing outline of what looked like a keyhole suddenly appeared in the center of the wooden door behind Kairi. The next moment, the door violently blew open and dark winds began rushing into the cave, sending Kairi flying straight towards Sora.

"Kairi!" cried Sora as he braced his feet and spread his arms out to catch her. However, before she made contact with him, she instantly faded and disappeared, almost causing him to lose his balance. The winds from the doorway rapidly grew in strength until Sora's feet slipped out from under him, causing him to go flying through the tunnel leading out of the cave.

--

When Sora regained his bearings, he found himself and Luffy standing on a large platform of land that looked like a piece of the Children's Island, surrounded by a dark vortex swirling around it. They even saw the giant darkness portal from in the sky before directly above their heads, now much closer than before. The wind whipped their hair around as they regarded their current location. It was almost as if they were in the eye of a violent storm of darkness going on all around them.

Getting curious, Sora inched over to the edge of the piece of land and looked over… and jumped back in surprise almost immediately. There was nothing below them. Only a deep, dark void. What was going on?! What happened to the islands?!

Luffy's thoughts were along the same lines. What happened to the islands? Where was the Merry? Where was the rest of his crew, for that matter?

Suddenly, the two of them felt a huge sinister aura washing over them from behind. Sora and Luffy quickly whipped around… and felt their jaws hit the ground.

There, right in front of them, stood a behemoth of darkness. It stood over thirty feet tall and had the same glowing yellow eyes as the creatures they had fought just seconds earlier. Its face and head were obscured by a mess of tentacles of darkness, which looked like it could pass as its hair. There was even a crude pair of small wings protruding from behind its shoulders. To top it off, it had a large hole in its torso shaped like a heart.

_Uh oh,_ thought Sora as he stared at the beast, recognizing it as the same creature he had fought in that strange dream he had the other day.

Before Luffy and Sora could react, the giant dropped to its knees, leaning back and spreading its arms out. Dark energy began swirling within the heart-shaped cavity in its torso, quickly converging into a large sphere. The next moment, three large, light purple energy projectiles fired out of the sphere, homing in on Sora and Luffy.

"Gah!" cried the two of them as the projectiles rapidly approached. Not having time to think, the two of them jumped away from each other, barely avoiding the attack as it exploded the sand they stood on.

After getting to his feet, Sora instinctively summoned the Keyblade into his hands and slid into his usual sword battle stance, ready to battle this enemy once again.

"All right!" said Luffy with a confident grin as he began cracking his knuckles. "So we just have to kick this thing's ass, right?"

"Right!" replied Sora, bracing himself as the dark giant began firing out more and more energy bullets in rapid succession at the two combatants.

Luffy managed to dodge the few that came his way easily enough. He even tried punching one, but ended up burning his hand (thought not too seriously), causing him to comically yelp and start blowing on his hand to ease the pain.

Sora, however, had a much harder time. For some reason, most of the bullets homed in on him rather than Luffy. With so many deadly projectiles flying at him from all directions, he barely had any time to dodge accordingly. He ran, ducked, jumped, and rolled out of the way of the balls of burning energy, just barely making it out each time. A few of them even grazed him, leaving some mild burns, but Sora bore the pain; he'd had worse. At some points, the offending energy spheres even chased him across the sand in a straight line, though they fizzled out after a while.

At one point, however, while Sora was running from a lone energy ball, he tripped over a random piece of debris, causing him to fall forward and land on all fours. Quickly whipping around into a sitting position, Sora's eyes widened in fear as he saw the projectile heading straight towards his face. Without any time to think, Sora quickly crossed his Keyblade in front of his face to try and block it. He didn't know if it would work, but he had to try.

To his surprise and relief, the energy ball deflected away, apparently due to some kind of force field around the Keyblade, and hit the ground, fizzling out. Seeing this, Sora got an idea.

He quickly got up and watched the black monster carefully, as it seemed to be charging up more energy within its chest for one more gigantic attack. After a second, the monster bent over forward, then threw back its head and arms and thrust its chest out, launching a huge barrage of what looked like twenty energy balls, many of which once again flew towards Sora while the remainders went after Luffy.

However, that was exactly what Sora wanted. He quickly began running the other way, causing the energy balls to change direction and pursue him. He ran in as big a curve as possible on the small chunk of land, eventually causing the projectiles to seemingly converge into one as they continued to give chase. Seeing this, the Keyblade wielder quickly changed direction so that his back was directly to the giant monster.

Sora then quickly stopped and spun around, swinging the Keyblade as he did so. The mysterious weapon struck the giant mass of dark energy hard, causing it to split back into separate energy spheres and go flying back in the opposite direction… straight towards the dark behemoth.

The burning energy projectiles struck the monster all over its body: arms, legs, and torso. However, they did little more than cause it to flinch slightly each time they struck. Whatever damage they did healed over instantly. However, when two of them struck its face, it let out a loud hiss and raised a hand to where they made contact, as if trying to ease its pain.

"So that's it… I remember now…" said Sora softly. Because of the amount of time that had passed since he had that strange dream, he had forgotten much of how he had fought and defeated the giant monster of darkness that now stood before him and Luffy. However, that last move of his jarred his memory, and memories of his previous fight came flooding back to him.

He then looked over to Luffy, who had been watching the entire thing with his eyes wide and his jaw practically dropping to the ground. "WHOOOAAH!! That was awesome! How'd you do that ?!" cheered the Straw Hat captain.

"Luffy! The head is this thing's weak point! We have to go after its head!" Sora called out. Luffy momentarily stared at Sora, as if processing what he had just said, then smirked confidently.

"All right! So I just have to hit the head, right?" replied the Straw Hat captain as he reared his fist back. "Then let's go! **Gomu Gomu no Pistol!**" He fired a powerful stretching punch at the creature's face, hitting it just below the eyes. The creature let out another loud hiss in pain as Luffy's fist came barreling into its face.

"Awesome!" said the Straw Hat captain with a grin. "Now let's…" He stopped in mid-sentence, which drew Sora's attention. He started tugging on his punching arm, which for some reason hadn't retracted yet. "What the…?"

Unknown to Luffy, at that moment, the giant had raised its hand into the air. Dark energy gathered into its palm, and the giant clenched its hand into a fist once there was enough. It then swung its energized fist downward… straight towards Luffy!

At that moment, however, Luffy suddenly went flying towards the giant's face as his arm retracted itself, just barely getting out of the way of its fist as it came smashing down. The ground shook under the impact, knocking Sora off his feet.

The dark energy in the monster's hand apparently wasn't just for extra power, though, as a giant pool of darkness, similar to the vortexes that had swallowed Sora, Luffy, and Riku earlier, formed across the ground around the giant's fist. This darkness pool, though, was MUCH more widespread than the vortexes, reaching at least 10 meters across with the giant's fist in the centre. As Sora got back to his feet, he saw a number of small black creatures from before emerging from it.

While that happened, Luffy haphazardly smacked headfirst into the giant's face as his arm completely retracted itself, much like with his Rocket move, causing it to let out another hiss.

Once he regained his senses, Luffy quickly looked down to see his arm caught within the large, hair-like tentacles obscuring the creature's face. Apparently, when he had punched the creature, his fist had been snared by the said tentacles, and now they were drawing his arm in even further, threatening to drag his entire body into the creature and essentially eat him alive.

"WAAAHHHH!!!" Luffy screamed with a comically terrified expression as he frantically tried to pull his arm out of the tentacles; he tried pushing off with his feet, he tried yanking it out with his other arm, he tried pounding the giant in the face over and over, but nothing worked. "I CAN'T GET IT OUT!! I CAN'T GET IT OUT!!"

"Hold on, Luffy!" yelled Sora as he got to his feet and rushed towards the giant's fist, as it was still embedded in the ground. A few of the smaller creatures attempted to rush him, but he easily took them out with the Keyblade.

As Sora stepped into the black pool around the giant's fist, a few black tentacles rose up from the darkness in his path, whipping forward to grab him. Sora was ready this time, though, as he slashed through them with the Keyblade, causing them to break and burst into black smoke under the touch of the mysterious weapon.

Sora continued slashing through creatures and tentacles alike until he reached the giant's fist. Jumping onto it, he quickly ran up its arm to its head as he had done before in his dream.

Luffy's arm was up to his shoulder in the giant's tentacles before Sora came rushing in and struck the said tentacles with the Keyblade. The giant let out a loud hiss as the tentacles cringed and loosened their grip on Luffy's arm. A few slashes later and Luffy was free.

"Thanks, Sora!" said Luffy with a bright smile.

Sora smiled back. "Don't mention it. Now we're even!"

The moment was cut short, however, as the giant pulled its hand from the ground and began swiping at the two fighters as if they were flies buzzing around its face. Luffy dodged by jumping straight off and falling the full height of the giant, landing easily on his feet. Sora, not wanting to jump that far down onto solid ground, opted to slide off the giant's shoulder, digging the teeth of the Keyblade into its back to slow his descent. The giant hissed in pain once again and began swiping at Sora with its clawed fingers as he descended, but couldn't quite reach due to the spiky-haired boy going down a hard-to-reach area of its body. Near the bottom, Sora hopped off and landed on the ground, quickly running over to where Luffy was. Now side-by-side once again, the two of them turned to face the dark giant once again.

"Well, I guess that rules out any stretching attacks on its head," said Sora with slight exasperation. How were they going to win against this thing? Apparently, the 'Keyblade' he now held was the only thing that had any significant effect on this monster, while Luffy's fists didn't seem to do much in comparison. Sora had gotten lucky when it had punched the ground so that he could run up its arm, but who knew if this thing would do that again? What would they do if it didn't? He considered _throwing_ the Keyblade, since it would apparently return to his hand like before, but he didn't think he could throw it that high. What could they do?

"**Gomu Gomu no…**" began Luffy, causing Sora to look over to see him bolting forward towards the giant, his arms both stretched back over fifteen metres behind him as he ran.

"Luffy, wait! I said DON'T use stretching attacks on the head!" cried Sora, reaching out a hand to try and stop him, but he was too late.

"**BAZOOKA!**" shouted Luffy as his arms retracted and surged forward, his palms slamming hard into the giant's… feet?

The giant roared as its feet and legs went flying out from under it, causing it to lose balance and fall forward… right towards Sora. Acting quickly, Sora dove out of the way as the giant hit the ground, causing it to shake once again. Luffy himself had managed to escape being caught underneath its body, having been positioned between its feet at the time.

_Oh, so THAT'S what he was doing, _thought Sora as his face lit up with comprehension. If they couldn't reach the head from the ground, bring the head down to the ground instead! He then gained a determined expression. _Now's my chance!_

Getting to his feet, Sora rushed over to the giant's head before it could push itself up from the ground. He then began striking its head over and over with the Keyblade, causing it to hiss and roar in pain under the touch of the weapon. The giant raised a hand to try and slash Sora with its claws, but Luffy quickly stretched out his arm and wrapped it around the giant's wrist like a whip, preventing it from doing so as Sora continued his assault.

However, at that moment, both Sora and Luffy noticed the wind beginning to pick up, blowing straight upwards for some reason. It grew stronger and stronger, with sand and debris being picked up and drawn into the dark portal directly above them.

_Oh, no!_ thought Sora in horror, stopping his attack as he realized something. _This isn't wind! It's suction! The portal is trying to suck us in!_

"Luffy!" Sora shouted frantically as he ran over and grabbed a random piece of wood that was jammed into the sand, hoping to keep himself anchored. "Grab onto something! The portal is trying to suck us in!"

"WHAAAAT?!" screamed Luffy with comically wide eyes. Quickly retracting his arm from the giant's wrist, he ran over to a palm tree that was still rooted to the ground and latched onto it with his arms and legs, clinging to it for dear life. The two of them then watched as the giant black monster was lifted off the ground and drawn into the giant portal of darkness.

The winds created by the portal continued to grow stronger and more violent. Pieces of the island itself began breaking off at the edges; small at first, but growing larger and larger. Sora desperately clung to the piece of wood with both hands as his entire body was lifted into the air, shutting his eyes against the gale-force winds hitting his face. It was getting harder and harder to hold on, but he was trying.

Then, suddenly, the piece of wood he held onto snapped under the strain, and Sora went flying upwards towards the portal.

"Sora!" shouted Luffy as he saw the spiky-haired boy go flying. He quickly stretched out an arm and grabbed Sora's hand, holding on as hard as he could and preventing him from being sucked in. His arm began stretching out longer and longer as the pull from the portal grew stronger. Sora subconsciously wondered if Luffy's arm would rip if this kept up.

However, at that moment, the tree Luffy held onto suddenly uprooted and began flying towards the portal, the Straw Hat captain still attached to it. Letting out a surprised yelp, Luffy quickly let go of the tree and stretched his free arm back toward the ground, with his other hand still holding onto Sora. However, his hand only grasped sand as the entire chunk of land split into huge pieces, all being drawn into the portal. Luffy and Sora were helpless to do anything else as they too were sucked in, but Sora still held onto Luffy's hand.

However, a large chunk of rock came flying past and hit Sora and Luffy's hands, causing them to lose their grip. The two then flew apart, soon losing sight of each other within the strange wormhole of darkness, and eventually blacking out.

--

Sora was drawn out of unconsciousness by the feeling of something licking his face. "Oh… ugh…" groaned Sora as he came to, slowly opening his eyes. Once everything came back into focus, Sora looked to his right to see a large, skinny, happy-looking dog with thin, floppy black ears and short yellow fur, apparently the one that had licked him. "What a dream…" groaned the spiky-haired boy sleepily, thinking he was still asleep.

However, the dog jumped up and playfully shoved Sora in the chest with its front paws, causing him to yelp in surprise. "This isn't a dream!" he cried, now fully awake. Looking around, he found himself sitting up against the wall of a strange alleyway, with buildings around him he didn't recognize. Clearly, this wasn't Destiny Islands. Climbing to his feet, he began to look around.

_Meanwhile, on the other side of town…_

"That was a great nap!" exclaimed Luffy joyfully as he burst out of the barrel he was stuck inside of. It was just like that time he had been caught in a giant whirlpool and ended up stuck inside a rum barrel… except this time he was upside-down. "Wah!" Luffy yelped in surprise as he fell onto his back from his balancing position on his head.

"Wheeeew!" breathed Luffy as he got up and brushed himself off. "That was kind of scary… looks like I survived, though! Ha ha ha!" Feeling the top of his head with his hand, he was relieved to find that Shanks' straw hat was still there. He didn't know what he would have done if he had lost it in the vortex.

He then stepped out of the splinters of the barrel he had been inside of a moment ago and began looking around the alleyway he was currently in.

_At the same time, on both sides of town…_

"Where am I?" Sora/Luffy said out loud.

* * *

Author's note: Yes! Finally finished! Damn, I'm surprised at how long it took to write this chapter. I deeply apologize for how long this chapter took. I know I said this wouldn't take nearly as long as the previous chapter, but the length kind of got away on me. The holidays had something to do with it too (speaking of which, Merry belated Christmas and Happy Belated New Year to everyone!), given how busy December can be. There were other factors as well, but I don't want to bore you all with those. Again, very sorry for the wait, and I hope beyond all hope that the next one won't take as long as this. Hopefully the length of this chapter makes up for it.

I realize that showing each of the Straw Hats being sucked into the vortexes of darkness may have gotten somewhat repetitive, but trust me when I say it was unavoidable. Also, some of you may have expected big, epic battles from each of the Straw Hats against the Heartless, but remember that at this point in time, the Heartless are relatively weak; plus, writing big epic battles would become quite tedious, for both me and the reader, so the battles were somewhat short. But don't worry! There will be big, epic fights in the future, so don't worry too much about that.

I do confess that I was slightly mistaken as to the exact details of the dock's junction with the island. As I wrote the chapter, I thought there was water on both sides of it, but when I went back and played that part of the game, I found out that there was water on the one side, and sand on the other. Whoops! However, for the sake of such details, let's just say that in this story, the dock extends further out from the island, to the point where there is water on both sides. I hope that satisfies the more nitpicky readers out there.

For those of you wondering if there will be any romance in this story… well, that all depends. I'm not entirely confident in my abilities to write decent romance (I'm really much better with fight scenes), but I'm leaning towards including some, to add interest to the story if nothing else. If you're wondering what the pairings will be if I do so, they will be Luffy x Nami and Sora x Kairi, and there's no way I'm changing that. However, don't expect the romantic content to be full-out, pedal-to-the-metal fluff (seriously, huge amounts of fluff make me gag). It'll be mostly subtle and low-key, although I may surprise myself later.

Sorry, but no preview this time. I've realized that by doing chapter previews, the following chapters end up longer than I'd like them to be since I want to cover the section within the preview. So from now on, I'll simply do teaser lines about the general idea of what I intend to happen next chapter. Sorry if that's a disappointment to any of you, but it's the best way I can get the next chapters out more quickly.

Well, that's about all I've got to say for now. Thanks for reading, and please review, as it makes things so much easier. Constructive criticism is welcomed with open arms.

Techniques used in this chapter:

**Nitoryu: Sai Kuru**: Translation: Two Sword Style: Rhinoceros Spin. Zoro flips his katanas into a backhand grip and points them upward like rhino horns. He then spins around and sends out a number of slashes in all directions as he does so in order to take out multiple enemies at once. The name of this technique plays on the word "Saikuru", the romanized version of the word "Cycle."

**Oni Giri**: Translation: Demon Slash. Zoro crosses his arms in front of himself, pointing the tips of his arm swords directly upward, and rapidly dashes forward, sending out three simultaneous slashes from all three of his swords as he does so. The technique's name is a Japanese pun for "Onigiri", a Japanese rice ball snack.

**Santoryu: Tatsu Maki**: Translation: Three Sword Style: Dragon Twister. Zoro positions his swords to create a resemblance of a dragon's body with his arms, then rapidly spins and generates a tornado of slashing winds with his swords. The technique's name is a Japanese pun for "Tatsumaki", meaning "Tornado".

**Gomu Gomu no Pistol**: No translation needed. Luffy throws a straight punch that stretches his arm out and hits an opponent from a distance away.

**Gomu Gomu no Gatling Gun**: No translation needed. Luffy sends out a rapid-fire barrage of stretching punches, moving his arms so fast that it appears as though he has multiple arms. Each individual punch is not as powerful as the Pistol attack, but allows many more hits to land.

**Gomu Gomu no Bazooka**: No translation needed. Luffy stretches his arms out behind him as he runs forward towards his opponent, then slams his hands into said opponent as his arms retract.

**Usopp Noise**: Usopp scratches his fingernails across a small chalkboard within a large crowd of opponents, causing them to flinch and cringe at the sound.

**Hissatsu: Tamago Boshi**: Translation: Sure Kill: Egg Star. Usopp fires a rotten egg at an opponent with his slingshot, mostly as a distraction technique to cause them to hold their noses at the stench while he escapes the fight.

**Hissatsu: Kemuri Boshi**: Translation: Sure Kill: Smoke Star. Usopp throws down a smoke pellet to create a smokescreen, allowing him to escape without being seen.

**Horn Point**: One of Chopper's transformations brought on by the consumption of the Rumble Ball. Chopper's front legs grow more muscular, and his antlers become much larger and sharper, with more 'branches' as well.

**Cuatro Fleurs**: Translation: Four Flowers. Robin creates four arms with her Devil Fruit ability. What they do depends on the situation.

**Cinco Fleurs**: Translation: Five Flowers. Robin creates five arms with her Devil Fruit ability.

Many thanks to FictionReader98 and Zoneshifter D for their help with this chapter!

_Luffy and Sora have now been separated from each other by the darkness, and have awakened in a strange new town. What awaits them there? Will they be able to find each other again? Will Sora be able to find help? Who is this stranger with a gun-sword? And how much chaos can Luffy cause before he finds Sora again? Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter of "Heart of a Pirate"!_


	4. New World, New Faces Part 1

Heart of a Pirate

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or Kingdom Hearts. They belong to Eiichiro Oda and Square Enix respectively.

**Chapter 4: New World, New Faces (Part 1)**

_A few minutes prior…_

Donald Duck and Goofy strolled through the cobblestone streets of Traverse Town's 1st District, clad in new clothes they had just picked up to replace the ones they had left Disney Castle with. Instead of his usual long-sleeved mage robes with the tall, wide-brimmed hat, Donald now wore a more casual, short-sleeved version of his original outfit with gold bracelets and a blue cap which had a number of zippers all over it. As for Goofy, instead of the clanky armor and leather pants he originally wore, he was now decked out in a green sweater, a black and grey zip-up vest, baggy yellow cargo pants and a small yellow hat with goggles to top it off. They had gotten these clothes to help them blend in more when the time came to travel to other worlds, since their original garb stood out quite a bit. Now they just needed to find this "Key" that King Mickey had mentioned in the note he had left and they could begin their mission.

"Hm?" Goofy suddenly stopped as something up above caught his attention.

Noticing that his companion was no longer beside him, Donald turned around with an annoyed expression on his face. "What are you doing?" he asked irritably. "We've got to…" He stopped in mid-sentence when he saw Goofy raise his hand to point to the sky. Looking up, Donald immediately saw what he was pointing at.

"Look, a star's goin' out!" Goofy exclaimed as a single star began glowing brightly, then immediately flashed out of existence, an indication that another world had just disappeared.

"Come on, let's hurry!" urged Donald, knowing there likely wasn't much time before any more worlds flashed out of existence. Goofy nodded, and the two set off once again, with Pluto right beside them.

After a bit of time spent walking and searching, Donald began getting impatient. "Where's that key?" he muttered with a grumpy expression on his face.

"Hey, ya know, maybe we oughta go find Leon!" Goofy suggested cheerfully.

Leon was the name of someone King Mickey had mentioned in the note he had left behind for Donald and Goofy. Neither Donald nor Goofy knew who he was or what he looked like, but King Mickey said he would be able to point them in the right direction, so he was their best chance. Seeing no other options aside from combing the entire town all on their own, Donald agreed.

As the two Disney Castle soldiers passed by an alleyway, Pluto suddenly starting sniffing the ground, apparently catching a scent, and wandered into said alleyway, catching Goofy's attention. Donald, however, paid it no mind as he continued walking along.

"Uh, Donald?" Goofy piped up. "Ya know, I betcha that, uh…"

"Aw, what do you know, you big palooka?" Donald replied in an annoyed manner, cutting Goofy off in mid-sentence with a wave of his hand.

"Huh, what _do_ I know?" was Goofy's ever-intelligent response. "Oh well. Come on, Pluto!" he called out before moving to follow Donald, the said dog still in the alleyway. Little did either of them realize just how close they had missed the primary target of their mission...

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Alleyway, Present time_

"Where am I?" wondered Sora out loud as he took in the sights around him. "Oh boy… this _definitely_ isn't home…"

He then bent down to face the dog who had licked him awake. "Do _you_ know where we are?" he asked, seemingly forgetting that he was talking to a dog. But hey, he had to try.

The dog suddenly pricked up an ear, apparently hearing something Sora hadn't, and quickly dashed off out of the alleyway. "Hey, wait!" cried Sora as he reached out to the dog, not wanting to be separated from the first and only friendly face he had encountered so far in this new place. Granted, he hadn't met anyone else yet, but at the moment, it was all he could go on. However, the dog simply ran off, leaving Sora alone.

"Aw, man… guess I'm on my own," he said glumly as he began trudging off to explore this new place.

0o0o0o0o0o0o— _Traverse Town, Second District, Residential area_

Luffy strolled leisurely through a rather quiet part of the strange town, currently on the lookout for Sora as well as his crew. He wasn't sure what had happened to them after being whisked away from Destiny Islands, but he figured that this was as good a place as any to start looking for them. Unfortunately, he hadn't yet met anyone who could tell him where he was, but being his usual optimistic self, Luffy was undeterred.

"I wonder where everybody is?" wondered Luffy aloud. "Oooiii!! Zoro! Nami! Usopp! Sanji! Chopper! Robin! Sora! Riku! Kairi!"

Getting no response, Luffy quickly moved to another part of the neighborhood and called out to them again. Once again, he got no response.

After a few more failed attempts to find his friends in different parts of that area, Luffy decided to try a different approach. "**Gomu Gomu no Rocket!**" Stretching his arm upward, Luffy pulled himself up onto a random rooftop and landed on his feet. Taking a deep breath, he began shouting at the top of his lungs.

"_ZORO!! NAMI!! USOPP!! SAN-"_

**CRASH!!**

A flowerpot came flying out of nowhere and smashed into the back of Luffy's head, cutting off his loud shouting.

"WILL YOU SHUT UP!! SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!!" yelled a gruff, disgruntled and _very_ angry male voice coming from a random window, followed quickly by the sound of said window slamming shut.

"Awww…" Luffy groaned with disappointment as he brushed the dirt and flowerpot fragments off his head.

"Huh, guess they're not here," he said to himself, before grinning. "Oh well, might as well look somewhere else!" With that, he hopped off the roof, landed on the cobblestone pathway and set off for a busier area of this strange new town.

0o0o0o0o0o0o— _Traverse Town, First District_

Upon exiting the alleyway, Sora found himself in the middle of some kind of town square, with houses, shops, street lamps, and an outdoor patio for a restaurant. It was fairly quiet, with only a small number of people walking around, going in and out of various buildings. Though he felt slightly apprehensive, being all by himself in a strange place and all, Sora continued walking, taking in the sights and hoping that he could find out where he was and what was going on.

After a few minutes of exploring, Sora suddenly heard a scream from up ahead, startling him. "THEY'RE AFTER ME!! SOMEONE HELP!!" came the desperate cry of someone from around the corner twenty feet ahead of him.

At that moment, a panicked-looking man came running from around said corner, immediately followed by a swarm of black creatures that were apparently attempting to chase him down.

The man suddenly tripped and fell forward on his face, quickly turning over onto his rear and attempting to crab-walk away from the creatures as fast as he could. But the creatures were quickly upon him, and Sora could only watch in horror as they pounced on him one after the other, sending him falling to the ground and quickly enveloping him. The next thing Sora knew, another one of those glowing hearts flew into the air and disappeared into a dark portal, and the creatures scattered, revealing that the man had vanished. The creatures then fixed their glowing yellow gaze on Sora.

_Those are the same creatures from back on the islands!_ Sora thought to himself. _But then, does that mean…?_

Suddenly, at that moment, dozens more of those same small creatures quickly morphed into existence out of the ground, almost filling the street ahead of Sora. The creatures gazed hungrily at the spiky-haired boy, before moving as one towards him.

_Oh boy, this isn't good,_ thought Sora as he quickly began backpedaling away from the approaching onslaught of black creatures advancing on him. Looking left and right, he began looking for something – _anything_ – to use as a weapon against these things or ward them off somehow, but nothing caught his eye. _Argh! If only I had the Keyblade! _

Suddenly, as if on cue, the said key-shaped weapon flashed brightly into existence in Sora's hand, startling him slightly. What he had thought previously were just idle words; he certainly wasn't expecting the Keyblade to appear in his hand just because he wanted it to. Was that how it worked?

_So I just have to call on it with my mind and it'll appear,_ thought Sora, before smiling. "Alright then, it's go time!" the spiky-haired boy declared aloud as he stopped backpedaling, got into his usual sword-fighting stance and charged towards the crowd of creatures. If he could take down five of them with one swing of the Keyblade, then he could _easily_ deal with these guys!

He met the creatures head-on and the battle began. Sora began hacking and slashing in every direction he saw a target, doing whatever possible to take out as many of these things as he could. But for some reason, no matter how much he fought, the crowd of creatures didn't shrink in the slightest; if anything, it seemed to grow as time went on. Sora could already feel himself growing tired.

"There's too many of them!" Sora cried after a few minutes of fighting, realizing he couldn't defeat this many creatures all on his own, even with the Keyblade. Turning on his heel, Sora quickly ran away in the opposite direction, the creatures in hot pursuit.

Unseen by Sora, someone was watching him from the shadows of an alleyway not too far away, with an odd weapon in his hand that looked like a combination between a sword and a gun. "So, the Keybearer has arrived…" said the person softly.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Somewhere in Second District_

Luffy now strolled through a more open and busy part of this strange new place, passing through crowds of random strangers just going about their business. Looking around in every direction, he saw many various things: brightly lit shops with glowing neon signs, a fountain, a bell tower, a large hotel, and so on. "This is so COOL!" said Luffy gleefully. Having not seen any towns or cities lit up quite like this before, the Straw Hat Captain was quite enthralled by the sights.

He was so busy taking it all in that he didn't notice the petite, black-haired teenage girl walking directly towards him before accidentally bumping into her. "Ack!" he yelped in surprise.

"Ow! Watch where you're going!" said the girl in an indignant tone. "You've got a lot of nerve, you know! I'm the great ninja Yuffie!"

Upon hearing her name (and how much it rhymed with his own), Luffy quickly flew into a rage. "NO WAY!!" he shouted irately, his eyes going completely white and his teeth appearing to grow pointed. "_I'M_ LUFFY!! AND I'M NOT A NINJA! I'M GONNA BE THE PIRATE KING!!"

"I SAID _YUFFIE_, NOT _LUFFY_, YOU MORON!! GET IT RIGHT!!" the now-named Yuffie shouted back, shoving her face directly in front of Luffy's.

Upon hearing that, Luffy's expression immediately went back to normal. "Oh. Okay then!" he cheerfully replied with a grin before stepping around Yuffie and setting off again, leaving the said kunoichi fuming.

"Just who does that guy think he is?!" she growled under her breath before storming off in the opposite direction.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Back in First District_

Sora ran as fast as he could, trying to outrun the huge group of black creatures pursuing him, but they did not slow down in the slightest. No matter how far or fast he ran, or how many twists and turns through the roads and alleyways he took, he simply could not lose them. Why were they all chasing after him like this?!

Deciding to take a different approach, Sora spotted a store ahead on the right with the word 'Accessories' posted in glowing letters above the door and quickly ran towards it. He quickly rushed inside and slammed the door shut, leaning his back against it and panting heavily. That was _too_ close!

"Hey there, how can I…" came a gruff voice from inside the shop, causing Sora to quickly look in the direction it was coming from.

Behind the counter in front and slightly to the left of him stood a tough-looking, fairly muscular man with short, messy blond hair, a pair of goggles around his head, and a long toothpick sticking out of his mouth, along with some beard stubble lining his jaw. He wore a white T-shirt, baggy blue pants with some strange white sock things around the shins, black shoes, and a haramaki similar to Zoro's, except it was brownish-yellow instead of green. The man appeared to regard Sora for a moment before his expression slackened. "Ah, never mind, it's just a kid," the man said dismissively before returning to the book in his hand.

"Hey! I'm not a kid!" said Sora indignantly. "And the name's Sora!"

"Alright, alright, simmer down," said the man with a wave of his hand. "Whatcha doin' in here, anyway? If you ain't gonna buy anythin', I suggest you –"

**BAM! BAM! BAM!**

Sora tensed up with fear as he felt the black creatures hitting the door from the other side, trying to force their way inside. He had no idea how long he could keep running before they finally caught him.

"Eh? What the hell's this all about?" said the man as he stepped out from the behind the counter to look out one of the windows. His eyebrows arched at what he saw.

"Tch. Damn Heartless are at it again. And on the _streets_, no less," he grumbled with mild irritation before stepping over to the door where Sora was.

"Move it, kid," he said as he brushed him aside and grabbed the door handle. Seeing this, Sora immediately started panicking and frantically waved for him to stop.

"Wait! Don't open it! They're gonna –"

But before Sora could finish, the store-owner flung the doors open while hitting a button to the side of the doorframe, and the next second, something sprung out of the floor on a spring-loaded extender right in front of him, which he immediately grabbed. To Sora, it looked like a large, old-fashioned camera, but he barely caught the words "Cid Cannon" written on it before the man opened fire.

"QUIT OBSTRUCTIN' MY FRICKIN' BUSINESS!!!" the man shouted as he fired round after round of exploding projectiles into the huge swarm of black creatures outside the shop, decimating their numbers. The explosions were small, but powerful, as Sora could feel the shock from where he stood. Some creatures attempted to jump out of the way and run, but they too were soon claimed by the cannon. Within seconds, all of the creatures were gone, and surprisingly, not much damage could be seen on the street they had occupied just moments ago. This man must have had pretty good aim to accomplish that!

"Geez, what the hell are those blasted things doin' here in 1st District?" the man muttered angrily as he surveyed the scene. He then looked down at Sora. "Best be careful, kid. Ya never know when…" He trailed off when he saw that Sora wasn't paying attention, instead gawking at the scene.

"S-so many at once… h-how…?" stuttered the spiky-haired boy with a look of complete awe on his face. The man gave a small half-smile at his reaction.

"Not bad, eh?" he said nonchalantly as he pushed the weapon back into the floor, shutting the trapdoor over it. "Just a little somethin' I whipped up myself for situations like this. This whole place has got countermeasures all over it, 'case somethin' like this happens again. Can't be too careful, you know." He then stepped back behind the counter and leaned back against the wall. "So, I haven't seen you around here before… Sora, was it? Ya lost or somethin'?"

"No!" Sora quickly exclaimed, before remembering his current situation. "Well, actually, yeah, I guess you could say that. Where are we?"

"Eh?" The store-owner cocked an eyebrow at Sora. "Yer in Traverse Town, kid. Where else?"

"Traverse Town… so that's what this place is called," said Sora to himself, wondering what was going on. This place definitely couldn't have been anywhere on Destiny Islands, since back at home on the main island, there was only one large town where everyone lived, since that was about as much as the island's size allowed. But if he was here in this new town, and since he knew he wasn't dreaming, did that mean…?

He then looked back up at the shopkeeper. " I guess this means we're not at Destiny Islands then, huh?"

"Destiny Islands?"

"Yeah, it's my home island. Does this mean I'm in another world, gramps?"

"Don't call me gramps! The name's Cid!" the now-named Cid replied indignantly with an irritated expression, before immediately calming back down. "Anyways… not sure what yer talkin' about, sonny, but this sure ain't your island."

"Hmm… guess I'd better start looking for Riku, Kairi, and Luffy," Sora mused to himself, though Cid barely heard much of it.

"Well, good luck with whatever it is you're doin'," said Cid as Sora turned to leave. "And kid," he called out, causing the spiky-haired boy to pause in his tracks. "If you ever run into to trouble, just come to me. I'll give you a hand."

Sora regarded him for a moment, then smiled and nodded. "Sure thing. Thanks, gramps!" he replied, saying the last part as he went out the door.

"I told you not to call me that! It's Cid!" Cid yelled after him as the doors closed behind him. He then began muttering irritably as he went back to reading his book. "Damn kids these days… no respect for their elders…"

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Second District_

As Luffy continued walking through the town, he suddenly felt his stomach growling. "Ugh… so hungry…" Luffy moaned, his eyes half-lidded and his tongue hanging out. "OI! SANJI! FOOD!" He got no response, aside from some weird looks from the people around him. "Oh right, he's not here." His stomach growled again. "Uuuuggghh… Neeeeed fooood…"

Suddenly he stopped, taking a few sniffs of the air. This scent… so heavenly… so mouth-watering… it could only be…!

"FOOD!!" he yelled with joy as he took off running as fast as he could, following the scent trail.

After following the scent for a short time, Luffy managed to spot a restaurant ahead of him, apparently the source of the scent. "FOOD!!" he shouted again gleefully as he doubled his speed towards it.

_Meanwhile, inside the restaurant…_

Two men who had been hanging around the bar for much of the night finally got up and made for the exit, slightly tipsy from all the alcohol they had consumed. As they made to exit the building, the doors suddenly burst open from the outside as a teen in a straw hat and red vest came charging inside, flattening the two of them against the walls in the process, one on each side of the doorway. Shortly afterward, their bodies peeled off the wall and slumped to the floor. Luffy didn't seem to notice, however, as he immediately shot over to the bar and claimed a seat.

"Oi, ossan! Food! Food! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!" Luffy exclaimed quickly and loudly to the bartender, grabbing a fork and a knife and rapping them on the table with anticipation.

"Alright, alright, we'll get you some! Just hold your horses!" the bartender said irritably, rather annoyed with this kid's loud behaviour, especially during a night like this. With all that had been going on with the worlds disappearing from the sky and more and more new people arriving in town as a result, quiet business nights like this were becoming increasingly rare. Why did this kid have to come and ruin it?!

Finally, after a short while of putting up with Luffy's loud behaviour, the bartender and servers finally brought out some plates of assorted food from the menu to the bar, which the Straw Hat captain immediately devoured in less than half a minute, surprising everyone present. How could anyone eat so fast?!

"More! More! Lots more!" Luffy joyfully called out upon finishing the food, once again knocking his utensils on the bar.

The bartender, servers, and even the manager, who had come out due to all the noise Luffy was making, all let out a collective sigh. This was going to be a long night…

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_First District, in front of Accessory shop_

Sora stepped out of the Accessory shop and took a look around, wondering where he should go next. He needed to look for Riku, Kairi and Luffy, but he had no idea if those black creatures would come after him again. And if they did, he wasn't sure if he could make it back to the shop before they caught up with him. It was the only place he knew of so far where he could take refuge from them. But he couldn't ignore the fact that Riku, Kairi, and Luffy could be close by. What could he do?

"They'll come at you out of nowhere," came a serious voice to Sora's left, startling him. "And they'll just keep coming after you as long as you continue to wield the Keyblade."

Sora quickly turned in the direction of the voice and saw a muscular young man who looked at least ten years older than him standing there. He stood at least a head above Sora, had windswept, messy, medium-length brown hair, steel-grey eyes with a serious look in them, and a long diagonal scar running from his forehead across the bridge of his nose to just below his left eye. He wore a dark grey, short-sleeved jacket with fur lining the neck over a white shirt, black gloves along with three belts strapped to his left forearm, long black pants with what seemed like more belts than necessary, and black combat boots. He also wore a neck chain with what looked like a lion head on a cross hanging from it. To top it off, he also had a large, strange-looking sword with what looked like a gun for a hilt hanging from his belt, with a silver lion head hanging from it on a chain.

"Wha-? Wh-Who are you?!" stammered Sora. How did this person know about the Keyblade?!

"But why?" continued the person, seemingly ignoring Sora's question as he placed a hand on his forehead as if to signify that he was deep in thought. "Why would it choose a kid like you?"

Sora bristled upon hearing the word "kid" used to describe him again. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" he half-shouted indignantly. It was starting to get on his nerves!

"Never mind," said the stranger as he lowered his hand, before slowly advancing toward Sora. "Now," he said as he moved, reaching a hand forward. " Let's see that Keyblade."

"What?" Upon hearing this, Sora immediately reaffirmed his grip on his weapon. "Forget it! There's no way I'll let you take this!" he replied defiantly.

At Sora's display of defensiveness, the stranger let out a small sigh. "Alright then, have it your way." He then pulled out his gun-sword and moved into an offensive stance.

He then immediately sprung forward and swung his weapon down towards Sora. Sora yelped in surprise as he reflexively dove to the side, just barely avoiding the strike as it hit the ground he was standing on. Getting to his feet, Sora looked up to see the person striding towards him before swinging his sword in a horizontal slash towards him. Sora quickly brought up the Keyblade to block, but the power behind the attack sent Sora reeling back and falling to the ground.

Scrambling back to his feet, Sora gulped as he watched his opponent. This guy really wasn't messing around. Would he be able to win against him?

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Second District, Restaurant_

Not long after Luffy had arrived in the restaurant, the customers there had begun to notice portions of their food disappearing from their plates; sometimes even right off their forks. But looking around, they couldn't see anyone running off or ducking under their tables to steal it. What was going on?

After a short period of confusion, the customers, as well as the employees, began to notice the hands grabbing the food and shooting away, right back to the body they belonged to…

Luffy's.

Despite the fact that he had plenty of food fresh from the kitchen in front of him, the rubber man was periodically stretching out his arms to grab people's food right off their plates, somehow managing to keep stuffing his face with both his and the customers' food even while he was stealing it. And as if the fact that he was _stretching his arms_ wasn't a big enough shock, he was somehow able to grab the food with pinpoint accuracy despite facing the bar the entire time!

Soon, though, the shock wore off. Once Luffy finished up the food in front of him, he leaned back and sighed contentedly, patting his slightly distended stomach. "Ah, that was so good!" he said dreamily as he opened his eyes… only to find himself surrounded by what looked like the entire restaurant's customers, as well as the manager, all giving him a collective glare that could wither a boulder.

"Kid… you better have a _hell_ of a lot of money on you if you wanna stay outta trouble," growled the restaurant manager.

"Eh?" Luffy tilted his head to the side in confusion, then began patting himself down, searching for any money he might have had on him, with all eyes on him as he did so. After a few seconds, he stopped and looked up with a grin.

"Nope! Sorry!"

**5 seconds later…**

"WAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"

"GET HIIIIMMMMM!!!"

Luffy came bursting out of the restaurant entrance, screaming at the top of his lungs with a look of comical terror on his face and running as fast as he could, quickly followed by an irate mob of customers and employees alike, many of which brandished clubs, pitchforks and torches as they gave chase, though no one had any idea where _those_ came from. Deciding it would be safer, Luffy quickly stretched his arms up and yanked himself up onto the rooftops, continuing his escape up there.

After some more rooftop leaping and hiding, Luffy finally managed to lose the mob. Looking down from his spot on top of an apartment building, he spotted a sign that said '1st District'. "Huh? Of what?" said the rubberman, scratching his head with confusion.

At that moment, Luffy heard some fighting sounds coming from somewhere close by. Getting curious, he quickly leaped off across the rooftops to investigate.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—_Back in First District_

Sora quickly parried an attack from the Gunblade wielder and aimed a vertical slash at him. The man dodged and jumped back a fair distance, almost causing Sora to lose his balance from the momentum of his swing, but he managed to remain standing. Quickly looking up, he saw the stranger lift two fingers in front of his face and close his eyes as if in concentration, before glowing orange energy quickly condensed around his hand into a fireball and shot at Sora like a bullet. Sora yelped in fright as he instinctively jumped away, barely avoiding the fireball as it hit the cobblestones of the street, flaring out of existence and leaving a scorch mark.

Sora didn't have time to recover, though, as the man was quickly upon him again, hitting him with a punch to the stomach. Sora wheezed as the wind got knocked out of him and stumbled back slightly. Looking up again, he saw the man readying a vertical slash downward, and quickly dove to the side as he brought the blade down, the sound of a gunshot ringing out from the sword as the man swung it.

Sora slowly got to his feet with a bit of difficulty, trying to regain his breath from being winded, and slowly raised the Keyblade into position with one hand, cradling his abdomen with the other. Who was this guy? How did he know about the Keyblade? And why did he want it so badly?!

Sora didn't have time to think about it as the man in front of him suddenly charged forward and began repeatedly slashing at Sora. Sora was barely able to fend off his strikes as he brought up the Keyblade and blocked and dodged to the best of his ability. With how aggressively his opponent was attacking, Sora was forced back to move backwards to avoid getting hit, leaving no room for him to recover and counterattack.

Sora grew more and more fearful as the attack continued on. How could he win against this guy? What if he couldn't? What was going to happen to him if he lost?!

The force of the next strike almost knocked Sora to the ground, causing him to reflexively throw out his arms to maintain his balance. But in doing so, he left himself wide open for attack!

Sora could only watch in fear as the man quickly raised his weapon above his head, clearly intending to end it with one final strike. With nothing left that he could do, Sora squeezed his eyes shut and tensed up in preparation for the blow.

But the blow never came.

Sora stood there for a moment after regaining his balance, his eyes still shut tight and tense all over. But upon realizing he was still alive and conscious, he gingerly opened his eyes... and found himself staring down the point of his opponent's sword poised directly in front of his face. On reflex, Sora gulped again.

"Relax, kid, I won't kill you," said the stranger as he lowered his weapon and placed it back at his side, causing Sora to let out a sigh of relief. The next moment, though, the stranger disappeared in a blur, startling him.

"But unfortunately, I'm going to have to ask you to take a little nap," the man's voice said from behind him. The last thing Sora felt was a hard chop to the back of his neck, and then everything went black.

--

Leon shook his head as he stared at the prone form of the young boy in front of him. This boy – this _kid_ – was the one the Keyblade chose? How could it have chosen _him_ of all people? He was barely even trying, and yet was able to overpower the boy this easily. He couldn't see any way that this kid could accomplish his duty as the Keyblade master. True, he had a _little_ bit of fight in him, but how could anyone expect him to be able to save all worlds from the darkness?

He'd have to figure it out later. Right now, he had to get this kid to the hotel so that he and the others could explain everything. Leon then bent down to scoop the boy up.

"BASTAAAARRRRD!! YOU BEAT UP SORA!!"

Leon looked up in alarm and saw a skinny-looking teenager in a straw hat, red vest, blue jean shorts and sandals standing on the roof of one of the apartment complexes, a look of righteous fury on his face that was directed at Leon.

"Hold on, whoever you are," began Leon, holding up a hand in a halting gesture. "I don't know who you are or how you know this kid, but –"

"**GOMU GOMU NO PISTOL!!**"

Leon barely managed to get his Gunblade up in time as the teen reared his fist back and fired out a stretching punch that shot out and hit the blade with a loud _CLANG!_ The power behind the punch sent Leon sliding back ten feet on his feet, barely managing to remain standing. His eyes widened slightly at that maneuver. How did he stretch his arm like that??

Before he could think or do anything else, the attacker leapt high into the air off the roof and reared back both his fists in midair for another attack.

"**GOMU GOMU NO GATLING GUN!!**"

Leon just barely managed to dive out of the way as a whole barrage of stretching punches came raining down, pummeling the ground he had stood on and its surrounding area, followed quickly by the straw hat kid who threw them. Getting to his feet, Leon brought up his Gunblade and narrowed his eyes at the stranger, who looked right back at him with an angry glare. Whoever this guy was, he clearly had a connection of some kind to the Keyblade wielder he had just knocked out. He was also quite strong, and had some strange ability to stretch his arms. While he didn't think he would lose against him, Leon still hoped he could talk some sense into him before anyone else got hurt.

After a short moment of staring/glaring, the newcomer charged forward, prompting Leon to do the same, and the fight began.

* * *

Author's Note: First off, I'm very, VERY sorry for the lateness of this update. A lot of things have been going on these past few months, such as applying and preparing for college in the fall, working overtime with my job, and a whole lot of other things that have cut into my time and sapped my motivation and creativity. Real life sucks, doesn't it? :D But still, four and a half months is hardly a reasonable amount of time to wait for another chapter, so I will strive to be faster with my updates in the future.

But worry not! I have no intention of abandoning this story. In fact, these past few months have also been rather fruitful in the way of planning out the rest of the story as a whole (with much help from my good friends FictionReader98 and Zoneshifter D; thanks a million, guys!), and believe me, it will be quite exciting. So don't go away just yet, the REAL fun of this story has yet to begin!

For those of you wondering about the part with Cid springing the Cid Cannon out of the floor, think of it like those spring-loaded extending cartoon boxing gloves (if that makes any sense to you). I wasn't sure if I had described it effectively in the narrative, so I thought I'd just clarify it here.

That's about all I've got to say for now. Again, please review, as it makes my and every other author's day on this site. Again, any constructive criticism is welcomed with open arms.

Techniques used in this chapter:

**Gomu Gomu no Pistol**: No translation needed. Luffy throws a straight punch that stretches his arm out and hits an opponent from a distance away.

**Gomu Gomu no Gatling Gun**: No translation needed. Luffy sends out a rapid-fire barrage of stretching punches, moving his arms so fast that it appears as though he has multiple arms. Each individual punch is not as powerful as the Pistol attack, but allows many more hits to land.

**Gomu Gomu no Rocket**: No translation needed. Luffy stretches out his arms (or one arm, depending on the situation), and retracts them to launch himself at high speed into the air, or towards a distant target. This move can also be used to ram an enemy with his body. Canon technique.

Many thanks to FictionReader98 and Zoneshifter D for their help with this chapter!

_Luffy has now met Leon, but the encounter is not a friendly one. How will their fight turn out? Who is this girl in a pink dress? And how will they explain to Sora and Luffy the Keyblade and other worlds? Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter of Heart of a Pirate!_


	5. New World, New Faces Part 2

Heart of a Pirate

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or Kingdom Hearts. They belong to Eiichiro Oda and Square Enix respectively.

**Chapter 5: New World, New Faces (Part 2)**

0o0o0o0o0o0o—Traverse Town, 1st District

A young woman strolled down a relatively deserted area of the 1st District of Traverse Town. She wore a long pink, button-up, sleeveless dress with a purple belt with silver studs around the waist, several small silver bracelets around her left wrist, a simple small pink choker and brown boots. She had brilliant emerald-green eyes and long brown hair tied into a large braid that hung down to her waist level with a pink bow tied at the base, with bangs that framed her pretty face. Her name was Aerith.

At the moment, Aerith was searching for a pair of envoys from Disney Castle that Leon told her would be in town. He had apparently located the Keybearer, a young teenage boy with very spiky brown hair, and knowing that King Mickey's subjects wouldn't be far behind, he had told her to look for them while he dealt with the boy. Knowing Leon, Aerith knew he would likely want to test the Keybearer's abilities to see if he could effectively fulfill his duties as wielder of the Keyblade. She only hoped he wasn't too hard on the boy when he did so…

Aerith suddenly stopped in her tracks as she heard sounds of fighting coming from a distance away. Her first thought was that Leon's personal assessment of the Keybearer's abilities was underway, but the sounds she heard were much too violent and destructive for that; Leon had always made it a point not to make a big show of his fights with as little collateral damage as possible. Had some unusually strong Heartless appeared? Or was it something else? Aerith quickly rushed off to investigate.

0o0o0o0o0o0o—1st District, Market Square

"**GOMU GOMU NO PISTOL!!**"

Leon quickly ducked his head to the side as another stretching punch came flying at him. The wind from the attack rustled his hair as it went barreling past his face and smashed into the wall behind him.

"**GOMU GOMU NO STAMP!!**" Luffy yelled, following up with a stretching thrust kick. The Gunblade wielder rolled to the side as the attack went flying harmlessly past him. Looking back, Leon's eyebrows rose slightly as he saw his opponent's fist and foot embedded into craters in the wall behind him, before the two stretching appendages retracted and snapped back to their original length on Luffy's body. This guy was stronger than he thought!

As he got to his feet, Leon raised his free hand in a calming gesture, hoping to calm this guy down before things got out of hand. "Listen to me!" he called out. "I mean no harm to your friend; I'm simply –"

"DON'T MAKE EXCUSES!!" Luffy bellowed angrily. "**GOMU GOMU NO GATLING GUN!!**"

Leon quickly dove out of the way as another huge barrage of stretching punches came flying toward him, though not without taking a few glancing hits before he could get away completely. He then rolled to his feet and jumped to the side before his opponent could halt the attack, trying to ignore the stinging pain from the blows that nicked him.

"I told you to listen!" Leon called out again, a small amount of frustration entering his voice. "I'm not out for your friend's life! I'm only –"

"I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT!!" Luffy roared. "**GOMU GOMU NO MUCHI!!**"

Luffy then sent a long-range sweeping kick straight toward Leon, who quickly ducked down, allowing the attack to fly just over his head, rustling his hair.

_Well, so much for that,_ thought Leon as the attack passed over him. This guy was clearly too angry to listen to any verbal peacemaking. He'd have to do this the hard way.

As the Gunblade wielder straightened back up, Luffy snapped his leg back and quickly stretched his other one straight up into the air. "**GOMU GOMU NO ONO!**" The rubberman then swung his quickly retracting leg down in a devastating axe kick, which Leon quickly avoided by jumping to the side as Luffy's foot smashed a large crater in the ground.

_Alright, that's enough of that, _Leon thought to himself as he landed. Feeling he'd gotten a good gauge of this guy's abilities from the previous attacks, the Gunblade wielder felt it was now time to start hitting back. Judging from the damage left from those attacks he had just avoided, if he kept this up, before long the whole area would be a wreck, and that was something he'd rather not have to deal with later. Seeing his opponent rearing up for another attack, Leon crouched slightly, then burst into a fast sprint towards him, Gunblade at the ready.

"**GOMU GOMU NO PISTOL!**" Luffy sent another stretching punch towards Leon, who simply moved his head to the side to avoid the attack and continued his sprint forward.

"**TWIN PISTOL!**" Luffy fired his other fist out, but Leon simply ducked underneath it and continued his approach between his stretched-out arms.

"**KANE!**" As a last-ditch effort, Luffy quickly stretched his neck out behind himself, then snapped it forward, attempting to head-butt Leon. Leon eyebrows raised again as he saw that his opponent could stretch out his _neck_ too. But having witnessed Luffy's previous feats of stretching, the element of surprise was diminished enough for Leon to move into a crouch, narrowly evading the attack and increasing his speed. Before Luffy could react, Leon quickly got up close and slammed the butt of his Gunblade into the rubberman's gut.

Saliva flew from Luffy's mouth as the air left his lungs, his head and arms snapping back into position. Leon followed up with a hard uppercut to the jaw that lifted the Straw Hat captain straight up into the air, finishing by whirling around and kicking the airborne Luffy in the chest, sending him smashing into the wall of a nearby building and kicking up a large cloud of dust as a portion of the wall crumbled from the impact.

Leon sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Once again, another building was badly damaged from battle, this time from him. He was NOT looking forward to explaining this to the residents. But at least he had finally knocked his raging opponent out. After taking a hit like that, there was no way he was still conscious.

"**GOMU GOMU NO YARI!!**"

Leon was caught completely off-guard as a double-footed spear kick came shooting out of the dust and slammed into his abdomen, carrying him a good distance through the air before crashing into a stone wall behind him, almost causing him to drop his weapon. The Gunblade wielder dropped to one knee as the attack retracted, clutching his stomach and coughing violently. _Damn_, that hurt!

Before he could do anything else, Luffy came bursting out of the dust cloud, his arms stretched out far behind himself as he rushed towards him. "**Gomu Gomu no Bazooka!**" he yelled as his arms retracted and surged forward towards the scarred swordsman.

Despite the pain he was in, Leon just barely managed to roll out of the way of the attack, watching with widened eyes as it utterly _destroyed_ the wall he had been kneeling in front of. Forget the punches and kicks from earlier, _this_ was the attack he needed to avoid!

Seeing that his attack hadn't hit the bastard, Luffy quickly retracted his arms and turned towards his kneeling opponent, raising a fist to attack him again. But before he could even move his arm, the guy quickly raised his palm and shouted "**FIRE!**" An orange ball of flame shot out of his gloved hand and hit Luffy in the chest, setting his vest on fire.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! HOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOT!!!" Luffy screamed as he began comically running all over the place like a chicken with its head cut off, swatting frantically at the flames with his hands, eventually gaining the sense to start rolling on the ground as he did so.

Leon used this opportunity to get back on his feet, his hand on his abdomen as he willed the pain away. That attack was powerful, but he'd had worse. He'd been near death more times than he cared to remember, and something like this was no more than an annoyance. Once the pain died down, Leon took a deep breath and steadied himself, taking his Gunblade in both hands and readying himself for his next move.

By that point, Luffy had finally managed to swat the fire out, leaving only scorch marks on his vest. After brushing himself off a bit, he turned to face his opponent… only to receive a faceful of metal as Leon rushed forward and slammed the blunt edge of his Gunblade into Luffy's face. The hit sent him flying, bouncing and rolling across the ground until finally skidding to a halt on his back a distance away.

But to Leon's surprise (and slight frustration), he simply got back up again as if nothing had happened. After taking a direct hit to the head from the reverse edge of his Gunblade, this guy was still conscious and ready for more? Just what the hell was he?!

"**Gomu Gomu no Pistol!**"

Leon quickly dodged to the side as another stretching punch came flying at him, followed by several more which the Gunblade wielder narrowly avoided. After a few more near misses, Leon evaded another punch, this time reaching out and grabbing the stretched-out arm in a firm grip. Feeling it beginning to retract, Leon braced his legs to keep himself from being pulled over, effectively trapping the arm.

"Hey! Let go!" Luffy exclaimed irritably as he tugged on his arm, trying to retract it. But Leon simply placed his Gunblade back on his belt and grabbed the arm with his other hand, now holding Luffy's arm in a two-handed grip. Luffy continued to yank and pull at his arm in a bizarre form of tug-of-war, but Leon's grip held strong.

"Fine then!" growled Luffy, raising his other fist. "**Gomu Gomu no – **"

"**FIRE!**"

"WAH!!" Luffy yelped as he quickly bent over backward to avoid the fireball. But in the process, he inadvertently shifted the stance of his feet, causing him to lose his balance and go flying towards Leon as his arm retracted itself. The moment Luffy's body reached Leon, in one smooth motion the Gunblade wielder lifted him over his head and, using the momentum of Luffy's speeding body, slammed him down hard onto the ground. A spider web-shaped indentation appeared in the cobblestone pavement from the impact.

"Have you had enough yet?" asked Leon bluntly as he gazed at Luffy's prone form. The Straw Hat captain remained silent and motionless, which Leon took to mean his opponent was out cold. But before the Gunblade wielder could even start moving to walk away, Luffy's eyes flew open, startling him.

"BASTARD!!" Luffy roared as he sprang to his feet and began throwing a series of lightning-fast punches and kicks at the Gunblade wielder, who quickly raised his arms to block the blows. It took everything he had to keep his guard up under the onslaught.

_Why won't he stay down?!_ Leon thought with both frustration and some amazement as he fought to keep up with his surprisingly resilient opponent. He didn't even seem injured or sore from any of the hits he took up to this point! Somehow, Leon felt that this guy's inhuman endurance and stretching abilities were connected in some way. Just what the hell was he?!

After a short time of guarding against Luffy's blows, Leon managed to slip under a punch and slide past Luffy, kicking him in the back as he did so and sending him stumbling forward. As Luffy turned back around, Leon came charging forward again with his Gunblade in the reverse position. It was rather awkward using it like this with the way the handle was designed, but he wasn't out to kill anyone here, so it had to be done.

But as Leon swung his weapon forward, Luffy quickly bent over forward and ducked under it, too fast for the Gunblade wielder to see. Leon only had time to widen his eyes as the Straw Hat captain swung his leg up to bash the scarred man in the jaw with a powerful upward kick, a loud _crack_ resounding as the hit sent him flying twenty feet straight up into the air.

As Leon reached the apex of his flight, completing his backward rotation caused by the hit and trying to ignore the intense pain in his jaw (knowing he was lucky it wasn't broken), he saw his opponent rearing his fists back in preparation for another stretching attack. _Damn! I can't dodge!_ thought Leon in frustration. _Only one thing I _can_ do…_ He then crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"**Gomu Gomu no Gatling Gun!**"

"**Aero!**"

A spherical barrier of wind sprang to life around Leon as the barrage of stretching punches came flying at him, deflecting the blows off to the sides. Luffy kept on punching and punching, but none of them connected, much to the rubberman's surprise. A lucky few managed to pierce the barrier, but didn't reach Leon as they were quickly shoved back out by the force of the wind currents. As Luffy halted his attack, Leon fell back to the ground, the wind barrier slightly cushioning his fall as he landed on his feet. Once he was on the ground, the spell disappeared instantly.

As Leon rubbed his aching jaw, he saw Luffy's face contorting between anger and amazement, as if torn between the two. At one moment, his eyes would be wide as dinner plates with stars in them, then quickly move back into an angry glare with his teeth gritted in an angry scowl, then move back to starry-eyed, then back to the glare. Starry-eyed, glare. Starry-eyed, glare; as if he was stuck in a loop. Despite himself, Leon couldn't help but sweatdrop at the display.

"Alright, it's time to finish this," Leon spoke up, snapping Luffy back to reality. If this fight went on much longer, some of the surrounding buildings would be in danger of collapsing altogether, and it was clear that he could not afford to hold back against this guy if he wanted any chance of subduing him. Raising two fingers to his forehead and closing his eyes, he concentrated for a moment. A circle of glowing blue magical energy surrounded the Gunblade wielder, illuminating him in its beautiful glow. His eyes then flew open as he shouted "**HASTE!**"

The glowing blue circle shattered and exploded outward as Leon disappeared from sight, startling Luffy. "Wha…?! Where'd he go?!" he exclaimed as he whipped his head around in all directions in search of the bastard who attacked Sora.

The next moment, he was sent flying by a hit to the side of the head. Quickly rolling to his feet, he looked in the direction the hit came from… before his opponent reappeared in front of him and hit him again with his weapon, causing him to stumble backwards. Luffy barely managed to dodge the next attack by bending over backward as the bastard quickly attempted to follow up with a horizontal slash.

"**GOMU GOMU NO STAMP!**" he yelled as he propped himself on his hands and fired out a stretching kick, but the attack never connected as his opponent disappeared before it could. The next moment, the Gunblade wielder instantly reappeared twenty feet away.

"**GOMU GOMU NO PISTOL!**" Luffy fired a stretching punch at the bastard, but he disappeared before it could connect and reappeared a distance to the left of that position. "**KAMA!**" Yanking on his stretched out arm with his other hand and shifting his weight, Luffy quickly swung his arm in the direction of his opponent, attempting to clothesline him. But again, the bastard disappeared, this time reappearing right in front of Luffy and powerfully kicking him to the side. Luffy quickly rolled to his feet and ran back to try and slug him with a regular punch, but again, he disappeared in a burst of speed.

This continued in much the same fashion for a while. Luffy would attempt to hit Leon, Leon would dodge with his magic-enhanced speed, and then he would attack back, more often than not managing to score a hit on the Straw Hat captain each time. Finally, Leon felt he had a chance. He could finally finish this!

"THAT'S IT!!" yelled Luffy, finally having enough. He jumped high into the air as the bastard came rushing toward him again, narrowly evading another sword slash in the process and began rapidly twisting his body on itself in mid-air.

Leon watched with a mixture of curiosity and alertness as his opponent began twisting his body over and over like a catapult rope. What was he doing?

"**GOMU GOMU NO HANABI!!**"

As if to answer the question, a huge number of punches and kicks exploded outward from Luffy in all directions. Leon tried dashing around to avoid them, but even with his magic-enhanced speed he couldn't avoid the punch and two kicks that came plowing into his face and stomach. The hits sent him stumbling back, causing him to lose focus and drop the Haste spell.

"**GOMU GOMU NO MUCHI!!**" Luffy shouted as he fully untwisted and dropped to the ground, firing out another stretching kick. The attack caught Leon in the side of the face and sent him flying off to the side, rolling across the ground.

"**GOMU GOMU NO RIFLE!!**" Luffy came dashing towards Leon again as he attempted to struggle to his feet, the scarred fighter looking up just in time for Luffy's fist to come plowing into his chest, this time with his arm twisted like a corkscrew and rapidly untwisting. The untwisting motion whirled Leon around like a cartwheel as the punch sent him flying back and smashing into a wall.

_Damn... didn't expect that,_ thought Leon as he coughed up blood, laying hunched over in the crater left by the impact. He hurt all over, and judging from how much punishment his opponent had taken from him up to now, he would collapse from exhaustion before coming anywhere close to knocking him unconscious. For the first time in a long time, Leon was unsure if he could win.

Looking up, his eyes widened as his opponent came bolting towards him again, his arms stretched out behind him in that same attack that decimated a wall earlier. Leon gritted his teeth as his opponent quickly drew closer, his arms rapidly retracting as they prepared to plow into him. _Shit…!_

"**GOMU GOMU NO BAZOO –** "

"**STOP!**"

Luffy suddenly stopped. Dead in his tracks. Completely still. In fact, he appeared to be completely frozen in position, his legs frozen in mid-stride and his arms and hands only two feet from making contact with Leon. Seeing this, the Gunblade wielder turned his head to where the voice had come from, and there stood Aerith, holding her palm out, evidently having cast a Stop spell on the Straw Hat captain.

"Are you okay, Leon?" asked Aerith in a concerned tone, seeing Leon's battered state. She hadn't seen him beaten up like this in a long time.

Leon grunted. "I'll be fine," he said as he attempted to get to his feet. As he straightened up, however, he felt a sharp stab of pain through his body, causing him to let out an involuntary hiss.

Aerith shook her head as she strolled over to him. He was always so stubborn. "Cure," she stated as she held out her hand over Leon, a fine mist of glowing green sparks appearing and drifting down onto the Gunblade wielder.

Leon immediately felt the soreness lifting from his bruised back and abdomen as the spell healed a good portion of the damage to his body, allowing him to fully stand up straight. The soreness didn't go away completely, but it had gone down enough for Leon to easily ignore it.

"That's better," said Leon simply as he dusted himself off.

"What, don't I get a 'Thank you'?" Aerith complained, crossing her arms with a mock pout on her face.

Leon sighed. "… Thanks."

"See? That wasn't so hard," she replied brightly. Leon just gave a 'Hm' of acknowledgement.

"So what happened? Who is this guy?" asked Aerith, gesturing towards the frozen pirate.

Leon explained everything that had transpired from confronting the now-unconscious Keybearer to her arrival. He spoke quickly, as he knew the Stop spell could wear off any second.

"So, think you can calm him down?" requested Leon. "He doesn't listen to a thing I say, and I'd rather we didn't wreck the area anymore than it already is."

Aerith thought for a moment. "I'll try," she finally said. "You'd better move out of sight, though."

Leon nodded and made his way over to a spot behind one of the surrounding buildings, while Aerith took her place a short distance behind the still-frozen teen. By Aerith's estimate, the spell would wear off any second now. 3… 2… 1…

" – **KA!!**"

Luffy's attack resumed, smashing through and destroying the wall. However, to his surprise and frustration, his opponent was gone. "Where is he?!" Luffy growled, looking left and right.

"Wait!" came a female voice from behind Luffy. The Straw Hat captain turned around to see a young woman in a pink dress standing a few feet away. "Please stop. You shouldn't fight anymore," she pleaded softly. However, it did little to placate Luffy.

"That bastard beat up my friend! I gotta make him pay!" he yelled back, moving to stomp past her in search of his opponent. But before he could get very far, the young woman suddenly dashed over and grabbed him by the shoulders from his right with surprising strength, halting his movement.

"Please listen!" she pleaded again, this time more insistently. Her tone immediately regained Luffy's attention as he turned his head to look at her. "You won't accomplish anything by attacking Leon. He means no harm to you or your friend."

"Then why'd he beat up Sora?!" shot back Luffy.

"Your friend will be alright. He's just unconscious," replied the young woman with a small placating smile as she gently released Luffy, stepping over and kneeling next to Sora's prone form. "Leon simply wanted to get a feel for his skills. Your friend hasn't been harmed in any way." Luffy said nothing, but the anger in his expression lessened slightly.

"Leon only wanted to get your friend somewhere safe to explain everything. Time is against us and this was the quickest way."

Luffy remained silent, his expression slowly continuing its return to neutral.

The young woman then stood back up and took slow, measured steps toward Luffy. "If you'll just give us a chance to explain, I know we can reach an understanding." She stopped right in front of him. "Will you let us talk?"

At that, Luffy's expression fully moved back to neutral, his anger gone, at least for the moment. "OK, I guess I can – "

"AHA!!"

Luffy was quickly cut off by the triumphant shout of another girl behind him. Quickly whirling around, he immediately recognized that ninja girl he ran into earlier. "Hey, I know you! You're –"

Before he could finish his sentence, Yuffie suddenly threw something at his feet. A cloud of white powder burst out upon impact with the ground, covering the Straw Hat captain.

"Eh?" Luffy took a few experimental sniffs. "This stuff smells weird; what is… it… uuhhh…" And before he knew it, the Straw Hat captain was out like a light, flopping down on the ground and snoring away.

* * *

"Was that really necessary, Yuffie?" said Leon with frustration as he stepped out of his hiding spot. It was bad enough he had just found out that the Keybearer was just a young teenage kid and ended up having to fight his ridiculously strong friend. He didn't need this to add to his list of frustrations.

"What, I don't get a 'thank-you'?" Yuffie complained, crossing her arms and puffing out her cheeks in a pout.

"Don't you start too," groaned Leon, pinching the bridge of his nose. "We just convinced him to come with us. There was no need for that."

"Like fun there wasn't!" Yuffie snapped, annoyed. "This guy just stole a ton of food from a restaurant in the Second District and caused a big uproar with the customers! It's gonna take forever to calm them down!"

Leon began rubbing his temples as he felt the beginnings of a headache creeping in; and not from that kick to the jaw he took earlier. It was just one thing after another today. Where would it all end?

"Let's just get these two to the hotel. We'll worry about that later," said Leon as he moved to pick up the now-unconscious teen he had just fought. He then stopped and turned to Aerith. "Aerith, keep looking for the envoys from Disney Castle. They can't be far away."

"Are you sure you'll be okay, Leon?" replied Aerith with concern in her voice.

"I'll be fine," Leon replied in a tone that booked no argument. "Your spell got the worst of it. Now go." Aerith hesitated, then nodded and walked off.

Leon then turned to Yuffie. "Yuffie, give me a hand with these two. We need to get them to the hotel before the Heartless show up again."

"Two?" asked the ninja, confused, before looking down and noticing the second unconscious boy on the ground. She was just about to ask who he was before the giant key in his hand caught her eye. "Is he…?"

"Yup," interrupted Leon. "The Keybearer." Hoisting his unconscious opponent's body over his shoulder, Leon frowned as he stared at said Keybearer's sleeping form. "It looks like things are worse than we thought. A lot worse."

* * *

"Come on, lazy bum. Wake up!"

The sound of Kairi's voice roused Sora from his slumber. Slowly sitting up, he shook his head to clear out the cobwebs. _Ugh… what happened?_ wondered Sora as he rubbed his forehead. Slowly opening his eyes, he saw someone standing next to him.

It was Kairi!

"You okay?" she asked as his vision began to clear.

"K-kairi?"

"Kairi? What are you talking about?" Kairi asked suddenly, her voice suddenly changing. "I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie!"

"Huh?"

In a flash, Kairi's form shifted into that of an older teenage girl, who was currently bending down to look at him, hands on her knees.

"Whoa!" Sora let out a startled yelp as he reflexively jumped back. He was definitely _not _expecting that to happen. Who was this person? What did she want?!

When the person in front of him showed no sign of any hostility towards him, he calmed back down, though he also felt a prickle of disappointment that it wasn't actually Kairi. Shaking it off, the spiky-haired boy began taking in the sight of the room he was currently in. _Where am I?_

"I think you might've overdone it, Squall. Didn't you say you'd go easy on him?" the girl said loftily, looking over her shoulder towards an open doorway.

"We've been over this before, Yuffie. It's _Leon_," said a familiar voice. At that moment, that same guy who had come after him earlier came stepping through the door, causing Sora to reflexively tense up. His nervous tension increased as the man turned to look at him.

"Uh, hi. Nice… to meet you two… I guess… heh heh," Sora said with a nervous smile, giving an awkward wave. He didn't know what these two people wanted with him, but he figured he might as well try to get on their good side. The teenage girl (Yuffie?) gave him a small smile, while the now-named 'Leon' guy's expression remained deadpan. Well, _she_ seemed friendly, at least.

"Sorry about earlier," spoke up Leon, gaining Sora's attention. "But we're running low on time and we needed to get you here as quickly as possible."

"Here?" Now that Sora though about it, he had no idea where he currently was. "Where am I…?" Sora trailed off as he heard loud snoring coming from the side. He turned to see the source.

It was Luffy!

"Luffy!" Sora cried joyfully as he ran over to his sleeping friend, who had a snot bubble forming from his nose that expanded and contracted as he breathed. "You made it here too! Come on, wake up! Wake up!"

"… haah… Sanji, more meat…" Luffy mumbled in his sleep, causing Sora to sweatdrop.

"Come on, Luffy, wake up!" Sora said in a slightly raised voice as he shook the Straw Hat captain more insistently.

"You're doing that all wrong," spoke up Yuffie, who came walking over. "The best way to wake up a deep sleeper…" Here she stood next to Luffy."…is like _this!_"

**POW!**

The female ninja brought her fist down hard on Luffy's skull, sending him crashing to the floor, much to Sora's shock and horror. "What are you doing?!" he exclaimed looking horrified, clutching his hair.

"Huh…? Whazzat…? What happened…?" Luffy slurred as he raised his head, his eyes half-lidded.

"See? Problem solved," Yuffie said proudly with her hands on her hips and a small smirk on her face. Sora sweatdropped again.

"Ah! Sora!" Luffy exclaimed happily as he jumped to his feet. "How'd you get here?"

"I don't know! I just woke up here!" replied Sora, returning Luffy's grin.

They were quickly interrupted by the sound of someone loudly clearing their throat. Both Sora and Luffy turned to see Leon leaning against the wall of the room. "Oh. It's you," Luffy said plainly. Sora stared at Luffy. How did he know this guy?

"Uh huh. And you are…?" asked Leon in response.

After introductions were once again made between the four hotel room occupants (with Luffy doing his regular enthusiastic introduction), Leon and Yuffie got down to business.

"First things first," began Leon. "You're probably wondering about that Keyblade of yours."

"Keyblade?" Sora then realized he no longer had said Keyblade on him. "Wh-where is it?!" He began frantically looking all over himself and around the room until he finally spotted it leaning against the wall.

"We had to get it away from you to shake off those creatures," explained Yuffie, pacing across the room. "Turns out that's how they were tracking you."

"It was the only way to conceal your heart from them," said Leon. "But it won't work for long."

"Huh?" Both Sora and Luffy tilted their heads in confusion. What were they talking about?

"Still, hard to believe that you of all people are the chosen one," Leon continued, ignoring the two as he picked up the Keyblade in one hand.

At that moment, the Keyblade instantly disappeared in a bright flash of light, reappearing in Sora's hand the next instant, startling him. He still couldn't figure out how it was doing that!

"Well, I guess beggars can't be choosers," finished Leon.

"I don't get it," said Luffy, still looking confused.

Sora also spoke up. "Sorry, but could you please start making sense? What's going on here?" Ever since arriving at Traverse Town, more and more questions kept popping up for him, and there was no one to go to for answers. What the heck was happening?! "Tell me! I need to know!"

"Alright, alright, keep your shorts on. We're getting to that," said Yuffie, holding up her hands defensively. She then stepped over and plopped down on the bed next to Sora.

"First off, you probably already know how there are different worlds out there aside from this town and where you came from, right?"

Sora nodded, while Luffy just stared. "I kinda figured that," replied Sora. "But what does that have to do with –"

"Let us finish!" interrupted Yuffie, holding up her hand to halt his question. She then continued. "The thing is, they've never been connected. Until now."

"Why?" asked Sora.

"The Heartless," answered Leon, his eyes darkening. "Ever since they came along, everything changed."

"Heartless?"

"The creatures that attacked you, remember?" answered Yuffie.

"Yeah, I remember," replied Sora, thinking back to the small black creatures with glowing yellow eyes. "But what are they, exactly?"

"Those without hearts," said Leon, still looking dark. Evidently, they were a touchy subject for him. "Shadows born from the darkness in people's hearts. As such, they prey upon that same darkness. If a Heartless gets a hold of one's heart, they too become a Heartless." Here, Sora gulped. "And there's darkness in every heart."

Luffy pounded a fist into his hand. "Got it. They're Mystery Shadows."

The tense atmosphere in the room instantly shattered with that one comment.

"WERE YOU EVEN LISTENING?!!" yelled Yuffie. Sora simply sweatdropped and Leon pinched his eyes shut in frustration.

"A-anyway," Sora piped up, trying to steer the conversation back on topic before things got out of hand. "You've told me about the other worlds and what the Heartless are. But what's that got to do with me?"

"Everything," spoke up Leon. "You're the Keybearer, the one chosen to wield the Keyblade. It's the ultimate weapon against the Heartless. As such, the Heartless have great fear of it."

Luffy nodded. "So it's a Mystery Key."

Yuffie looked ready to go off on the Straw Hat captain again, but stopped when Leon spoke again.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," the Gunblade wielder replied. "But in any case, since you now have the Keyblade, the Heartless will stop at nothing to get you. No matter what, they'll keep coming after you. No Keybearer, no threat. That's just how it is."

Here, Sora looked apprehensive. "I… I didn't ask for any of this. How am _I_ supposed to deal with those things?"

"The Keyblade chooses its master," spoke up Yuffie. "And it chose _you!_"

"So tough luck," said Leon with a tone of finality.

Sora put his hand to his forehead as he tried to process everything he had just been told. The Keyblade… the Heartless… other worlds… him being chosen… it was just so much to take in at once. And he still didn't know he'd gotten here in the first place!

"H-how did all of this happen, anyway?" asked Sora, voicing his thoughts. "I can remember being in my room, and then…" The spiky-haired boy trailed off as the reality of the situation finally sunk in. "Wait! What happened to my home?! My island?! My _friends?!_" Images began flashing in his head from prior to arriving in Traverse Town. The big storm over the islands… the Heartless attacking him and Luffy… Riku disappearing into the dark vortex… Kairi vanishing into thin air… the remains of the islands breaking apart and disappearing into the storm of pure darkness… what did it all mean for him and everyone else on Destiny Islands?!

Apparently Luffy had come to the same realization as he jumped to his feet. "That's right! Where are my nakama?! And my ship?!"

Here, Leon frowned. "You know what? I really don't know."

"What do you mean?!" asked Sora desperately.

"I mean there's no way of telling what could have happened to them," continued Leon, looking morose. "If they didn't end up here, it's possible they might have ended up on other worlds. But that's if the Heartless didn't get them first, and all things considered, the odds of that aren't good."

"Leon!" Yuffie scolded. "You didn't have to be that blunt about it!"

"It's the truth, Yuffie. There's no reason to sugarcoat it," Leon replied simply.

The scarred man sighed inwardly at the look of despair that appeared on Sora's face. He hated having to break the news to newcomers to Traverse Town that their world and possibly everyone they had ever known were gone, taken by the darkness. Over the years, he thought he would eventually grow numb to the sight of those people's expressions of hopelessness and sorrow, but it was still something he could never get used to. And this time was certainly no exception.

"Alright then!" Both Sora and Yuffie turned to Luffy in surprise as he punched his fist into his other hand, a determined grin on his face. Even Leon looked surprised. "If that's how it is, then we've just gotta go out and find them! If there's a way for my nakama to have survived, then they're definitely still out there!"

Leon stared pointedly at Luffy and his seemingly naïve optimism. "Are you so sure about that? Like I said before, the odds of that aren't very high."

Luffy simply grinned in response. "Of course I am! They're my nakama, so I'll definitely find them!"

Before anyone could say anything else, an audible _whooshing_ noise resounded from the other side the room. Turning to the source, everyone in the room immediately recognized the arrival of a Heartless.

_Damn! They're already here!_ Leon cursed mentally as he whipped out his Gunblade. "Yuffie! Go!" he ordered the ninja as more Heartless began appearing. Yuffie nodded and ran through one of the doors into the neighboring room, while Leon began cutting down all of the Heartless that began appearing more and more rapidly.

"Sora! Luffy! Let's go!" he ordered as he dashed toward the room balcony and jumped off the ledge, disappearing from sight. Sora and Luffy looked upon the sight, then at each other, then quickly followed him as one. Jumping off the ledge and landing next to the scarred man, the two found themselves smack in the middle of a small crowd of Heartless, all of which looked ready to attack.

"Don't bother with the small fry! Find their leader!" Leon announced to Sora and Luffy, quickly cutting a swathe through the creatures of darkness and charging onward. The Keyblade master and Straw Hat captain quickly moved to follow, but were abruptly cut off by a large line of Heartless spawning from the ground directly in front of them, blocking their path.

"Out of the way!" yelled Sora as he began hacking and slashing through the crowd of creatures, with Luffy following suit by punching and kicking whichever ones he could get his hands on, each instantly dispersing with each hit. Within seconds, the entire crowd of Heartless was gone. But Leon was nowhere to be seen.

"Come on, Luffy! He can't be far ahead!" called out Sora, running in the same direction he had last seen Leon heading. Luffy nodded as he followed close behind.

Sora turned a corner, only to find that Leon wasn't there either. Undeterred, Sora continued running, hoping to catch the Gunblade wielder before he got too far away. As they continued searching, more Heartless came along to trip them up, but the two of them easily dispatched them; Sora with his Keyblade and Luffy with his fists.

But no matter where he and Luffy ran and which places they searched, they couldn't find Leon. And the longer they searched, the more the Heartless grew in number as more and more came after them every step of the way. There were even some different Heartless added to the mix that stood on their hind legs, wore armored helmets and had some kind of weird black and red heart-shaped symbol emblazoned on their chest areas (these ones Sora and Luffy had a slightly tougher time taking down). But Sora wouldn't give up.

After searching and battling through several sections of the town, Sora and Luffy found themselves in an eerily quiet area in the Third District (as Sora had noted during the search). Bright neon lights illuminated a large, empty square paved with concrete and there was a beautiful, brightly lit fountain off in one corner, but there was no one, either human or Heartless, to be seen anywhere. What was going on?

"WAAAAHHH!!!"

A loud, squawking scream rang out from above Sora and Luffy, startling them both. Before either of them could even look up, two heavy forms came tumbling down on top of them, knocking them to the ground and resulting in a rather comical-looking pileup.

The two strangers lay there for a few moments, dazed from the fall, but immediately snapped out of it upon seeing Sora's Keyblade.

"THE KEY!"

The two were cut off from saying anything further when Luffy suddenly stood up from underneath them, sending everyone else in the pile sprawling on the ground with a number of indignant cries.

"Oh man! What just happened?" exclaimed Luffy, looking every which way before turning back towards the rest of them. "Eh? What are you all doing on the ground like that? Is that some kind of hobby?" he asked, more to the two strangers than Sora.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO DID IT, YOU IDIOT!!" screamed Donald as he sprang to his feet.

"WHOOAAA!! COOL! A TALKING DUCK!!" Luffy exclaimed in amazement, completely ignoring Donald's indignant shout as his eyes began sparkling brightly.

"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING?!" Donald shouted back. Goofy, having gotten up himself, just chuckled at the display.

"What… just happened?" wondered Sora aloud as he slowly got to his feet, wincing as he rolled the kinks out of his shoulder, before turning towards the two who fell on top of him and Luffy. "And who are you guys?"

Before either of them could answer, a number of square stone pillars suddenly erupted from the ground all around them, startling them. Each stood twenty feet tall and created a tight boundary within the large square area, making escape virtually impossible for all but Luffy.

The next second, several giant light purple pieces of armor came falling down from the sky, clattering loudly to the ground. In all, there were two large metal boots, two large gauntlets with large silver spikes for fingers, a giant torso piece at least four times the size of Sora's frame with that same black and red heart-shaped symbol on it that those other armored Heartless had on them, and finally a large round helm with a large spike coming out of the top of it and a visor flipped down over the face area.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy each stared at the display, unsure of what to make of it. Was this some new Heartless or something? It certainly looked that way, what with the symbol on the torso, but why wasn't it doing anything?

Luffy, on the other hand…

"WHOOAAA!! COOL ARMOR!!" the Straw Hat captain exclaimed, dashing forward. He then grabbed the torso and proceeded to attempt to pull it over his head.

"What are you doing, you idiot?!" Donald squawked, annoyed.

"Yeah Luffy, what are you doing?" asked Sora, utterly confused at what Luffy was trying to do. At this, Luffy turned to them with an indignant expression.

"Don't you guys know anything?!" said the pirate captain. "If there's a suit of armor lying around, it's a man's romance to wear it!"

Sora and Donald immediately face-vaulted to the ground at that. Goofy, on the other hand, simply said "Gawrsh, really?"

Before anyone could do anything else, however, the armor pieces began shaking, before fully springing to life. The torso levitated itself above the ground, slipping out of Luffy's grasp in the process, while the gauntlets and helm lifted off the ground and quickly shot over to their respective places on the torso. Instead of attaching themselves to it, though, they simply floated next to the nonexistent joint areas, the gauntlets' fingers flexing threateningly. The boots themselves took their place underneath the bottom of the torso and like the gauntlets and helm, remained unattached, stomping the ground menacingly.

The transformation was complete; here, in front of the four of them, stood a giant living suit of armor. Sora gulped. _This won't be an easy fight…_

"COOL!!" exclaimed Luffy, his eyes sparkling brightly once again.

"Luffy, look out! It's a Heartless!" yelled Sora.

"Eh?" As Luffy looked on, the hulking armor raised a giant fist and brought it down on him. "WAH!" Luffy yelped in surprise as quickly jumped backwards out of the way, barely avoiding the powerful punch as it smashed a crater in the concrete. The armor then fired its other fist at Sora.

With his own yelp of surprise, the Keyblade master barely twisted out of the way, the fist grazing his back as it smashed against the ground. Before Sora could re-orient himself, however, one of the boots came flying in out of nowhere, hitting him in the chest and sending him flying off the side. The Keyblade flew out of his grasp in the process, skittering away to the side as Sora hit the wall.

"Sora!" yelled Luffy, before turning an angry glare on the armor. "Bastard! **Gomu Gomu no Pistol!**" He quickly fired a stretching punch at the huge Heartless, connecting squarely with the helmet and knocking it clean off with a loud _clang_. The helmet went flying, ricocheting off the concrete wall and bouncing across the ground, eventually rolling to a stop.

"Hee hee!" laughed Luffy as he retracted his arm... right before one of the boots came swinging in from the side and plowed into him, sending him soaring across the makeshift arena and rolling across the concrete, stopping once he hit the wall. As this happened, the stray helmet levitated back off the ground and retook its place hovering inches above the neck of the torso.

Sora, meanwhile, had gotten back to his feet, having recovered from the winding he received from that kick. Seeing Luffy doing the same (not surprising to him, as he already knew of the natural resilience Luffy's Devil Fruit ability afforded him), the spiky-haired boy got into a fighting stance, summoning the Keyblade back into his hands as he did so. "Come on, Luffy! We've got to take this thing together!" he called to the Straw Hat captain. Luffy nodded in response, cracking his knuckles with a determined smile on his face.

"Hey! Don't leave us out of this!" came a squawking shout from the nearby bipedal duck, who whipped out a strange-looking staff.

"Yeah! Don't worry, we're here to help out, ahyuck!" the tall… dog? …called out, taking out a chrome shield with a dark purple design identical to the keychain on Sora's Keyblade.

Sora stared at the strangers for a moment, before nodding, knowing he had no time to argue. He could only hope they knew how to handle themselves. "Let's go!" he declared, rushing forward to battle this new threat.

* * *

Author's Note: Oh man… NO excuse this time. I can't believe it took me this long to get this chapter out. I really need to stop being such a perfectionist. I have a bad habit of intending to make every possible aspect of what I write the best it can possibly be instead of just letting it flow, which in turn causes what I intend to write to be rather daunting, and saps my motivation as a result. From now on, I'm going to try and write what I have in mind and go back and polish it up later. It just goes faster that way.

It also doesn't help that I've gotten into a new college program for aviation, which eats up a lot of my time. It's a fun program, but very time-consuming, so don't expect any updates until at least May, and even then, don't expect them very soon.

The second half of this chapter was the hardest to write for me. I enjoyed writing Luffy's fight with Leon (I hope I didn't make Luffy incredibly OOC), but everything after that was hard to get down, mostly because I wanted Luffy to be more involved, but it ended up featuring more of Sora. In the future, I fully intend to get the Straw Hats more involved in the story.

A big thank you to FictionReader98 and Zoneshifter D for their help with this chapter. Without their help and suggestions, the fight aftermath and onwards might not have gone as well as they did. And speaking of FictionReader98, for all of you Naruto fans out there, I urge you to have a look at his story "Quest to be the Greatest", a crossover between Naruto and One Piece. It's a very well-written and exciting story , but doesn't seem to get the press it deserves, so whenever you can, I urge you readers to have a look. Shameless plug, I know, but I don't care. It's just that good a story.

And just as a side note: HELL YEAH! CANADA WINS GOLD ON HOME TURF!! WOOOO!! (coughs, clears throat) Had to get that out of my system. I'm a proud Canadian, and seeing us finally win a gold medal in our own country for the first time has me rather pumped. And I'm sure a lot of others on here feel the same, lol.

That's about all I've got to say for now. See you guys at the next one!

Techniques used in this chapter:

**Gomu Gomu no Pistol**: No translation needed. Luffy throws a straight punch that stretches his arm out and hits an opponent from a distance away.

**Gomu Gomu no Gatling Gun**: No translation needed. Luffy sends out a rapid-fire barrage of stretching punches, moving his arms so fast that it appears as though he has multiple arms. Each individual punch is not as powerful as the Pistol attack, but allows many more hits to land.

**Gomu Gomu no Stamp**: No translation needed. Luffy fires a straight kick which stretches his leg out and hits an opponent from a distance away. Essentially the Pistol attack in kicking form.

**Gomu Gomu no Bazooka**: No translation needed. Luffy stretches his arms out behind him as he runs forward towards his opponent, then slams his hands into said opponent as his arms retract.

**Gomu Gomu no Muchi**: Translation: Gum Gum Whip. Luffy stretches out his leg out in a sweeping side kick that covers a very large area.

**Gomu Gomu no Yari**: Translation: Gum Gum Spear. Luffy presses the soles of his feet together and stretches his legs forward, hitting the opponent with a spearing double-kick, hence the name.

**Gomu Gomu no Ono**: Translation: Gum Gum Axe. Luffy stretches his leg straight upward high above his head, then retracts it down in combination with his own strength in a devastating axe kick.

**Gomu Gomu no Kane**: Translation: Gum Gum Bell. Luffy stretches his neck backward, then snaps his head forward for a very hard headbunt.

**Gomu Gomu no Kama**: Translation: Gum Gum Scythe. Luffy stretches his arm out and sweeps it around, clotheslining anyone it hits. Not particularly powerful, but effective for knocking several enemies down at once, or one hard-to-hit opponent.

**Gomu Gomu no Hanabi**: Translation: Gum Gum Firework. Luffy leaps into the air and twists his body around itself several times, much like a catapult rope, then as it untwists itself, Luffy fires several punches and kicks out at once in all directions, giving the appearance of a firework exploding. Similar to the Gatling Gun, but the blows go in every direction at once.

**Gomu Gomu no Rifle**: No translation needed. Luffy stretches his arm behind him, twisting it several times over as he does so, then snaps it forward in a drilling punch.

_The battle against the Guard Armor has begun, and two very odd strangers have joined Luffy and Sora in the fight. Who are these two? Can they effectively band together to beat this new Heartless? And where have the rest of the Straw Hats ended up? Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter of Heart of a Pirate!_


End file.
